Free at last (any rider!)

[shadowreine]

Despite Bamre's issues, Tirlynna was...well.

She was catching her dragon's mood for, no longer confined to the Sands, Reinth was very glad to spread her wings.

She was also inordinately proud of her son. Sure, it was only one dragon, but it was one dragon they would not have otherwise had.

The fact that rainbows came in both sexes had surprised everyone when the first male had cracked shell. A second was less of a surprise, but he was a good, healthy dragon.

Tirlynna sat on Reinth's neck as the rainbow sped across the bowl, securely strapped in. The dragon was not giving her an easy time of staying put! Fortunately, her straps held, even when Reinth banked so tightly that her wings ended up al but vertical.

[Kisha-Ra]

Idara was enjoying herself. There was always something very exciting about flying, even if one was used to it as Idara, who had been flown around by her parents since she could walk, was. It was fun watching people below her go about their business from the sky, and flying with Tuinth was much, much better than flying on any other dragon. Well most of the time anyway, Idara reflected as Tuinth got caught in a new air stream and lurched unpleasantly sideways.

Sorry.[/color] Tuinth was contrite, and her tone was tinged with shame and irritation. It didn’t please the young queen that she didn’t posses the agility and grace in flight that the older dragons and her smaller clutchmates possessed and that translated into a lot of flying practice as Tuinth was determined to get it right an stop looking like such a clumsy fool in front of the other weyrlings.

it’s alright love, I’m not going to fall off or anything. Idara assured her dragon and looked for something to distract the weyrling gold with. Fortunately she spotted another dragon, and the rainbow looked to be near enough that Tuinth might catch her up. Who is that? Idara asked, projecting an image of the rainbow and her rider.

Oh it’s Reinth![/color] Tuinth replied, clearly excited. Her egg hatched and we didn’t get to see it. We can ask her about it![/color] Tuinth turned as tightly as she could and moved toward the rainbow. Hello Reinth. Did your egg’s hatching go well?[/color] She inquired politely. Idara smiled slightly, Tuinth was already interested in eggs and hatchlings, she’d probably be a good mother when she matured, though Idara hoped, and expected, that Tuinth would wait a little longer than dragons like Renth and Haith to have her first clutch.

[shadowreine]

Tirlynna smiled, waving to the other rider. The gold had to be barely old enough to be flying. "Reinth," she murmured, "Don't show her up too badly."

My son chose well, Reinth sent back, after checking her rider's memory for the information. Rainbows were relatively smart dragons, but they still lived in the here and now.

Then, she fell in next to the gold. Tirlynna smiled, calling across, "Tuinth is getting big, isn't she."

She seemed to be one of the lighter golds on Pern, several shades lighter than the gold parts of Reinth. Of course, Tuinth would lay far more than one egg, when the time came. Far more...and they would need Candidates.

She wondered if *she* should try riding Search, if there was enough blue and green in her dragon to make it worth the effort.

[Kisha-Ra]

Idara smiled nervously back at the rainbowrider. If she knew Idara for an ousted spy it didn’t show on the older rider’s face. yet Idara couldn’t help feeling unsure, she had spoken unwisely to those two weyrling riders that day in the weyrbowl and unless she had everyone in the Weyr totally confused again Tirlynna was Bamre’s weyrmate, and the whiterider in turn was the brother of the blue weyrling. Plus she didn’t know what connection the bronze weyrling had to Tirlynna, if any, and he admitted to having a mouth that ran on fiddlesticks. Did she know?

As Reinth fell in beside Tuinth Idara looked over at the smaller dragon, the rainbows were small and agile that Reinth must be holding back to fly with the young queen. It took Idara a moment to register what Tirlynna had said, so fascinated was she with the differences between the traditional female and the newly discovered one. When she did realise that the rider had spoken Idara burst out into a smile that was only partly comprised of relief in such a causal topic. She was incredibly proud of her dragon. ‘Oh yes, she big alright. I’m just glad golds grow so much slower than rainbows. When she first hatched I swear I could see her growing overnight. I don’t know what I’d do if she was still growing that fast.’ Spend a lot more time oiling that golden hide probably, Idara thought, running a hand over a patch of darker colouration on Tuinth’s neck. ‘I really hope she matures a bit less fast than Renth and Haith though. I expect so, all the other queens around here have got to effect her.’

Good. You can be proud of him for that.[/color] Tuinth understood the concept of pride in another only vaguely but Idara so often wanted people to be proud of her that Tuinth wanted everyone around her to have something to take pride in and someone to take pride in it for them. For a moment the gold concentrated on her flying, pleased that she was keeping up with Reinth, in her own mind at least. I like hatchlings, they’re so small. Firelizards are small too but not very clever.[/color] The young dragon announced as if this was a very important matter.

[shadowreine]

If Tirlynna knew, she gave no sign. Her firelizards, gold and brown, both elected to show up at this point, popping out of between. Dawn, relatively light colored, flew a ring around the gold dragon.

"Rainbows grow fast, but not very much," Tirlynna admitted. "Which suits me fine, I like being mounted on one of the fastest dragons in the Weyr."

Reinth just warbled at that, vocally accepting her rider's compliment. "And she probably will...Renth matured extremely fast, she grew as fast as a rainbow did."

She wondered when Reinth would fly again. Some instinct told her it would not be for a while...and that suited her fine, weyrmated to a white rider as she was.

[Kisha-Ra]

Idara relaxed slightly, if the rainbowrider did know that Idara had been a spy she wasn’t mentioning it, and nothing that Idara could interpret as negative showed in Tirlynna’s expression. However Idara’s own expression was turning into a thoughtful frown.

‘Why do you think there are all these new colours of dragon all of a sudden?’ She decided to ask Tirlynna’s opinion; maybe she had a better idea than Idara’s tentative theroies. She was older, had been in the Weyr longer, and was bonded to one of the new dragons. ‘The new firelizards are a surprise too, although I haven’t really seen a great deal of firelizards, they aren’t anywhere near as common at home as they are here.’ The subject was one that occurred to her whenever the idea of hatching and growing dragons came to her mind, as well as the question of why rainbows needed to grow so fast and why there were so many clutching dragons hatching in such a short time, however she couldn’t ask everything at once.

Tuinth turned her head to keep the pale gold firelizard in her view for as long as possible, she was delighted. A little Tuinth! The brown was nice too, he was like a little Jordath, or maybe Cactierth, although he didn’t look much like either of them. The gold only looked like her because she was pale as well. Do these two belong to you and yours? The little queen looks a bit like me. Is there a firelizard that looks a bit like you Reinth?[/color] Tuinth couldn’t find a multi coloured firelizard in Idara’s memories but that didn’t mean there wasn’t one anywhere.

[shadowreine]

No, I don't know of any Reinth sent back, amused. But they're Mine's

"I don't know. They all come from Malaracyth, though, so maybe there's something in her that changed." Not wrong, because there had been no deformed or non-viable dragons...except for Haith's clutch...there was something wrong with the gold to have produced so many duds. Or with the clutch's sire, perhaps.

"I don't mind...it's not like we're getting wingless or blind dragons, just different ones."

[Kisha-Ra]

Idara thought for a moment, and then shook her head. ‘Can’t be.’ She insisted. ‘Malaracyth might explain all the new dragons but firelizards aren’t descended from her, and anyway they’re all different from the new dragon colours.’ Under her legs Idara felt Tuinth sigh and wondered what that was all about. ‘I’m just as happy not to see deformed dragons. Maybe those eggs in Haith’s clutch were deformed, too deformed to hatch. Things that might make a human child weak might make a dragon too weak to get out of its egg.’ Idara had a sudden morbid curiosity about the inside of dud eggs that was clearly not going to be easily resolved.

Mine just said all the new firelizards are different from the new dragons. I guess that means there are no firelizards like you.[/color] Tuinth was disappointed with the situation, she thought it would be nice if everyone had a matching dragon and firelizard.

[shadowreine]

Tirlynna nodded. "Actually, that's the general theory on dud eggs. That they're actually stillbirths because there's something wrong with them, or they're weak. Of course, I sometimes wonder if some of them are, or would have been, whites."

At least Reinth had had no such difficulty...she might be small, but she was not weak, her bright wings easily carrying herself and her rider despite being one of the smallest dragons at the Weyr.

[Kisha-Ra]

Idara’s eyes went wide. ‘Oooh, yes. Whites are supposed to have very thick shells, although I’ve never seen one hatch. No surprise there since Purth’s the only one. The stories say Ruth called his rider; do you think they’re right? It’s a shame we can’t break open those dud eggs but it would be really bad if there was a terribly deformed dragon inside and it Impressed and then died.’ Idara shivered convulsively at the thought, she would he devastated to lose her dragon, and would have been even moments after Impression. No that wouldn’t be good at all.

[shadowreine]

Tirlynna reached a hand onto Reinth's neckridge. "Also, I don't think any of us would want to see a deformed dragon. Just...eww. It's a shame if we have lost whites because of it, but both of the whites we've had have reached out to their bondeds before hatching. So..."

"But it's always been tradition to take dud eggs Between untouched. These traditions exist for a reason."

Idara probably had the right of it, that there was too much risk of some non-viable hatchling Impressing and then dying, possibly taking a good person with it.

[Kisha-Ra]

Idara shrugged, dismissing the concept of breaking open the dud eggs, and the subtle rebuke in the same gesture. ‘I suppose if there was a white in there he’d call his bonded to help him too. Purth seems pretty smart for a dragon; Ruth isn’t much to go on since he lived so long ago. All there is left of him is stories, and tales usually grow taller as they get older for some reason.’ Briefly Idara wondered why that was. ‘In another hundred turns the tales will be even more fantastic, and maybe there’ll be tales of now, when Purth roamed Pern, and Malaracyth clutched beautiful new colours of dragon.’ Idara smiled softly, very childlike at that moment.

[shadowreine]

Tirlynna nodded. "Or maybe, one day, our descendants will complete forget that dragons once only came in five."

She patted Reinth's neckridges. "I, of course, am very glad to have been born right now, because any earlier and I'd have ended up with a green. Not that there's anything wrong with greens, but..."

...Reinth was no green. Of course, she might have ended up with a gold, as her brother had expected, but she honestly did not feel that she would have. She did not think she had that particular kind of strength. Not to lead a Weyr.

[Kisha-Ra]

Idara shook her head sharply. ‘Songs only have the first five colours in them, people’d wonder why the new ones aren’t mentioned. Only they won’t be new then. But if songs from thousands of turns ago can survive then a mere hundred turns should be a snap right?’

Once again Idara shook her head but only slightly this time. ‘If you had Impressed a green or gold you’d adore her and think her the finest dragon on Pern, But you didn’t, you Impressed Reinth, so that adoring and thought is hers. She deserves it though, she’s pretty, and one of the fastest dragons on Pern too.’ Tuinth huffed at the compliments Reinth was getting. She, Tuinth, was clearly superior to every other dragon, except maybe the older golds, and her rider should be complimenting her not Reinth. Idara chuckled softly and patted the soft hide of her dragon’s neck. Silly Tuinth, Reinth is nice but you’re better. You’re my dragon.

[shadowreine]

Tirlynna laughed. "I think your gold is jealous. Tuinth's pretty too. She's an unusually light shade, isn't she."

Definitely lighter than the gold parts of Reinth. "But you have a point. Then again, who knows. Things get twisted in the telling and even the teaching songs can shift and change.

After all, nobody knew how the ancients had bred the dragons in the first place. Or how they had done many of the things they had apparently done.