Tuuli.

[Something Evil]

Note: just the intro of a story which has been sneaking around in my mind for a while. I'll do my best to post additional parts of it as often as I can.



Black, blacker, blackest...

Keeping those words in her mind, Tuuli ensured that she had a good hold on the belt worn by the rider sitting in front of her, and then she closed her eyes.
Then the feel of the warmth of the sun at her back was replaced by the shocking cold of Between, and she did her best to keep her fear under control, shutting her eyes even tighter. Still, the cold and the complete sensory deprivation of Between, along with the memory of her first experience of it only a sevenday ago, didn't make enduring those few moments any easier.
But then, at the count of two 'breaths'..

Though she couldn't acctually see anything, Tuuli knew that her eyes opened wide as a sensation of falling hit her with full force, and it only grew stronger as each second passed. And as the first sensation was followed by pain, she opened her mouth to scream, though there was nothing to carry the sound.
Then images and emotions flashed in her mind-- suggestions of something huge and very close, pulsing with strange power.
Confusion..
Fear..
Helplessness..
A plea for help which likely went unheard.

Tuuli's mind reeled from the shock of what was happening, then her consciousness started fading, the lack of oxygen proving too much on top of the other.
Though as she blacked out, part of her mind imagined that dark Between was replaced by blue sky and glimpses of twin suns whose light stung her eyes. And still they continued the tumble downwards...


TBC

[Something Evil]

And being the bright person which I am, I went and posted in the wrong forum..

Any nice hosts around here?

[Ian]

Hope this is where you wanted it moved to! ;)

[Something Evil]

Thank you.

[Something Evil]

Though that she had hovered between sleep and being awake for a while, imagining that she heard voices and people moving around her, a strange sound finally woke Tuuli completely. Comming from somewhere nearby, it was a deep sound which vibrated through her as well as the ground under her-- rappidly raising in pitch, then it ended as a sharp whistle came from another direction.
Opening her eyes, Tuuli found herself laying on the ground, her head resting at her folded up wher-hide jacket.
And above was a roof of woven straw and twigs, held up by poles at each corner.
Clearly it was a makeshift shelter, if it even deserved to be called that, certainly not constructed to last for long by whoever that had made it.

Sitting up, Tuuli couldn't help but wince as bruises probably caused by the security straps made their existence clear. Well, at least it felt like she was alive, though she would have prefered if her body wasn't quite as insistent on telling her that.
But at least it didn't feel like anything was broken, though that didn't mean that anything weren't. And of-course there could be other injuries.., a Healer she had been working with once has said something about that some injuries might not be emmediately obvious.
Or could be felt by the person having them for that matter.

Still, after stretching her limbs and looking for cuts or other signs of injury, she couldn't really find anything but a nice collection of bruises.
Standing up went well too, though the muscles in her legs complained a bit, standing upright went fine.

It was then that Tuuli noticed the creature, perching at one of the lower branches of a young tree just outside the 'shelter', watching her with gleaming eyes. She froze emmediately, uncertain if it was dangerous or not and therefore not wanting to make any movements that might cause it to attack.
But as she stood there, she got a good chance to take a good look at the creature.

Although it wasn't like anything she had seen before, there was something about its appearance that made her think that it might be some kind of strange dragon.
The body of the creature was covered by feathers and its muzzle was beak-like, but the four limbs and single pair of wings-- that was similar to the dragons she was familiar with. It was somewhat beautiful though, like a well bred mix of a dragon and a bird..
Turning its head to pluck away a loose feather from its smoky blue and gold plumage, it seemed to ignore her for a few moments before turning to look to the right, just as the sound of foot steps reached Tuuli's ears.

[rider_of_the_last_queen]

I really like it. I only hope that when I post up mine that it is as good as yours. Update it soon.

[Something Evil]

Please don't post comments in this thread, there's the Feedback forum for that; http://annemccaffreyfans.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=33

[Something Evil]

When the being appeared, Tuuli stumbled backwards a few steps, her eyes widening as she looked at it.
Certainly it was built in much the same way as a human, but it was much taller-- maybe as tall as nine feet in height if her judgement was right. Then there was its skin, which was a green-tinged bronze with a almost oily sheen to it, not to forget its silver-green eyes, which were huge.
The clothes of the being was also quite noticeable-- fabric and what semed to be metal colored in vibrant shades of gold and green, with a few additions of silver and very pale blues. On its hairless head, it also wore an elaborate head-dress made of what seemed to be black scales, adorned with gold and green feathers.
And for a moment, a part of Tuuli's mind couldn't help but notice how rather dull her own dark grey trousers and brown tunic looked when compared with the clothes worn by the being.

Looking at her with an expression that might have been amusement at her reaction, the being raised its arm and indicated that she should follow. And pausing only for a moment to let the feathered dragon glide from the tree and land at the being's shoulder, it turned around and walked back in the direction it had came from.

Tuuli reached out to pull nervously at a strand of hair that had escaped from her braid.
To say that she was unnerved was a huge understatement, and as she watched the being go, she debated with herself what would be the wise thing to do-- should she follow the being, or should she try to get away?
It was then that her mind was made up for her as the feathered dragon came winging back, circling her once as it uttered a series of whistles and other sounds which to her sounded uncannily like some kind of speech. And letting the tip of one wing brush against her shoulder, it swooped back outside, where it hovered and waited.

"I..I guess that I am to follow, right?"
And as the feathered dragon answered with its strange 'speech', Tuuli sighed as she bent down to retrieve her jacket. Clearly that 'dragon' would be watching her to make sure that she followed, so despite her own fears, she decided to follow.

[Something Evil]

As Tuuli walked away from the shelter where she had woken up, the plants and trees around her made it all too clear that she couldn't be on Pern.
Well, at least not any part of Pern that she was familiar with..

Quite short, but with massive trunks, most of the trees couldn't be more than five meters or so at the tallest. The bark was mottled in various shades of brown with pronounced ridges running down the lenght of the trunk, the fan-shaped leafs were larger than her hand-- thick and dark yellow green of color with patches of red at the edges.
Covering the ground except for at the trail they walked on, was a greater variety of plants though-- bushes carrying berries or nuts, several types of vines growing on dead trees and a few smaller types of green plants. There didn't seem to be any flower carrying plants though, but then it might have been the wrong season for that..

Looking forwards as she and the feathered dragon caught up with the being who had came to fetch her, Tuuli noticed that the forest seemed to be thinning just ahead. And after a few minutes, they came out of the forest and walked onto a grassy plain which seemed to stretch out as far as she could see in all directions. However, as she took a look around, it became clear that there was something strange with the shadows-- just outside the forest, it was impossible to miss that everything seemed to cast two pale shadows.
The reason for that though, was obvious as Tuuli looked up at the sky, seeing two suns instead of the single one she was used to from home.
Highest of the two was a yellow sun much like Rukbat, the other seemed smaller and paler than its sister-- that one also seeming to be much closer to the horizon and thus creating the longer shadows.

Tuuli did not get much time to stare at the strange sight however, as the odd sound she had heard when waking up came from the edge of the forest just a dragonlenght or so to the right of where she stood. And as she watched, a massive four-legged creature slowly walked out of the forest, its long neck being attached to a huge body supported by four pillar-like legs, the creature ending in a long, tapering tail. Longer and larger than any dragon she had ever seen, each of the creature's foot-steps could be felt through the ground, though it was not as strong as Tuuli would have expected judging by its size.

Then it complained noisily as the rider on its shoulders obviously commanded it to stop using a long metal staff with a rather sharp-looking hook at the end.
With a rumbling sound, the creature turned its head and snorted, just as a brown dragon emerged from the forest-- followed by his rider and a group of people, one of whom lead a raptor-like creature by its reigns.
To Tuuli's relief, there was also several humans in the group, though seeing N'yal-- the brownrider, was a even greater relief.