Image Credits:
Azalea's Dolls / Sci Fi Warrior

Name: Atuara Waters-Raya (later drops Waters)
Gender: Female, She/Her, straight
Age: 20 at search
Origin: Dawnlight Hold, born on Pern but raised on Alskyr
Rank: Purple 14, Guardian trained
Family: Mother Gloria, father Seth; Sisters Jan Connalyn-Raya, Renice Raya (aka Cybertiger)
Other Relations: Had been married to Thor Waters, but has since split and fostered their son Thuris to his family
Height: 5'4"
Build: lithe and compact, quite flexible
Hair: golden blond with distinct black stripes and ticked areas; fluffy, has been considerably longer but she cut it when Searched
Eyes: golden yellow, fairly small
Appearance: light skin with peachy lips and blush; she is quite attractive but in a subdued sort of way, and hardly seems to think about her looks even then; her Purple caste outfit is a 5 color piece, which is impressive considering her youth, and it is now styled in the Guardian wrap but the colors are not the 'sweep' style; her light blade (yes, that's absolutely a lightsaber) is red-violet
note the image below is her original (back in 1977... for real) showing off more her hair and the color pattern
Genetic Oddities: she does have the ticked-style bicolor hair as her father and sisters both do, though this did not appear in her son, it may yet if she has other children

Standing At: Alt Benden
Dragon: Night Rose Gold Varriath
Creation Date/Updated: Character created in 1977, among the first set of Paper People which became Dawnlight Chronicles much later; mentioned in Thor's page back in 2003-ish; created specific to Alt Benden's lovely giveaway 5.26.23

History and Events - tied early on to Thor in their security classes, with a working relationship that quickly led to a romantic one. Too quickly. With arguments that might storm on for hours, hot debates and equally hot tempers would eventually die down into a simmering 'make up'. It would doubtless be during one of those moments that Thuris was conceived. However for quite a few years in their teens, Thor and Aturara (who he always called merely Atta, a feature that she still dislikes, and tolerated him saying it hoping that eventually he would stop) made an excellent training team. She defended, he attacked, they would always be on guard together and both showed high promise.

Thor would constantly remind her that he was Searched as a child, and enjoyed talking to him about what might happen on the sands - could he use his Guardian training on dragon back? Would she be able to attend a hatching?

As time went on, and his eyes and body wandered farther from her than she really wanted to admit, Atuara dwelled on what to do... While her unborn son churned about in his own kind of distress.

(( From the Siang5x page, slightly different in the end I guess ))

"I didn't think I would see you here," Atuara said at the door, "but come on in. They're ... out."

Siren shook her head and sighed. "I'm sorry," she said as she entered. "You're the victim here and I hardly like that thought."

"Victim," she said, while walking (waddling) to her chair, "I never thought of it that way, but I suppose. Thor married me because he thought we should be more than Security partners, you know?"

"I didn't know that," Siren said. "And now?"

"He'll be leaving me, I know. He's ... I suppose he's going to do it any way, with or without your sister. He's not interested in me now," she indicated her extremely bloated belly. "This one's getting rambunctious, I suppose he'll be leaving me soon enough too."

There was a kind of hollowness in her voice, and a distance to her gaze, that made Siren wince. "Well, Atuara, you've got a good family otherwise. They will help, won't they?"

"Of course they will," she said, with a grin. "My mother has always wanted something more to do than just wait for her dragon rider to come home to her. I don't know how she manages with that, either."

"We have no riders in our family," Siren said, trying to soothe the mood a bit. It was working, and by the end of the evening, Siren decided that even if Serena did break them up, Atuara would be all right on her own. And perhaps that she would get visits from the other Siangs just in case. Then Atuara said something odd.

"My sister came back with cybernetic enhancements, you know?" Atuara spoke and tossed her head. "And then went off and bonded a dragon. Go figure - She's away for five years and suddenly we've got another dragonrider in our family."

"Maybe this one will be too?" Siren said of her yet unborn child.

"That's possible," she said. "Maybe he'll have my side of the family in him more than his father."

Her family was an amazing one - mother Gloria was a teacher, while father Seth had been a reporter and then dragon rider. Her other sister Jan was teaching in Eden's Gate, also married to a rider. They were scattered everywhere. But they could all be told by their hair: Atuara's was gold with black stripes, Jan's was just as shiny and sunlit golden as her mother's, and Renice - now calling herself Cybertiger - had her father's orange and black ticked hair.

Siren took her leave of the woman, and hoped that she didn't run into Thor on the way out of the complex. Fortunately - or perhaps not - Thor and Serena were out having drinks now, at a small place on the fringes of the city. They wouldn't be back at their respective homes for another hour yet.

**

Rather than bringing the newborn to her own parents, Atuara decided to finish the deal. She had no doubt that it would be painful, that she may regret or yearn, but... She delivered the boy with little difficulty - her body was toned and strong from a decade of security training, and would return to being sleek and strong within a few months at most. But her spirit was crushed by the idea that Siren's sister Serena was going to replace her by Thor's side - she should also have to deal with the results of his dalliances. If she couldn't be his wife in a true sense, his child's mother, then someone should.

Delaney had come to the door smiling and laughing at something her husband Ted was saying, but - the moment that she spotted the bundle in Atuara's arms on their porch, it was obvious what was going to happen. Atuara looked so sad and so brave at the same time, and Delaney felt a stab of shame. It was her son's responsibility being held out at arms length to her. It was her son's errant eye, his lack of love, that brought his son here to the pair of retired riders.

No words were spoken between the young and old. Thuris was reasonably silent most of the time, but when he was passed completely to his grandmother's arms, he gave off a single soft cry. Perhaps he knew, somehow, that this would be the last time his mother would hold him.

Atuara fled one step at a time, carefully, without running. Her body hadn't recovered yet, and perhaps that was the only reason she didn't simply bolt.

**

He was still gone, still at the Warren, when Serena - and Siren and her sisters - came home with their own wild assortment of dragons. Siren met up with Atuara more than once when they came home, and didn't seem to be disappointed by the way Atuara had handled her situation. Though harsh, it was entirely possible that Siren would have rid herself of her own sister's influence. Maybe she would become a different person, with a dragon, but it was unlikely. Plus, once Thor got home - presumably with a dragon, because he'd been gone a while now - he would have to face the consequences of his own actions. His parents might put some effort into getting him straight. It was also possible that Daleny would insist on it. If that happened... Siren promised that she would make sure that her sister did the most to truly prove she 'loved' him.

Thuris would be in good hands, either way, but he wouldn't ever be part of Atuara's life, and by the time Siren finished up her meeting with the young Guardian, Atuara felt that would be in everyone's best interests.

**

Hollis had been watching closely, all of these things. He said so, when he summoned Atuara into his office up in the Weyr's high-level aerie. "Your father and sister have made very strong riders, and you know that you're well suited to it as well." He spoke carefully, visibly looking at the papers in front of him, but very clearly peering into Atuara's mind. She knew he was, though didn't know the words to describe that sensation.

Which was quite a bit more impressive than most people he mind-read. And on a whim, he asked, "what do you feel? When I look at a memory, or test your personality a little... what do you feel?"

Atuara's expression shifted, furrowed her brows, but not in anger. She knew it was part of this 'interview', though did let the faint annoyance of having her mind read by a human show. She caught the faintest smirk on his handsome pale face, but continued to think, herself.

"It's... like trying to find where a breeze is coming in, in a closed room." She closed her eyes, "like listening to your own thoughts as echoes across a dining hall empty of people."

This, Hollis thought on, himself. Then he said, "have you ever been contacted by a dragon's mind?"

She shook her head, "Not... directly?" His head tilt prompted, "I think I've been around some giving commands, here and there, when we were training? They would go overhead and a number of those Searched would respond to them. I felt... something? Tingling, but no words, no thoughts. I could tell their direction, their range above us, but nothing specific."

Hollis nodded deeply, tapped his fingers against the desk. "Then perhaps you will be in for a pleasant surprise," he rose and beckoned her to follow. The weyr was huge, as was the big bronze dragon resting in it.

Atuara was a small woman, but she didn't shrink from this massive dragon who slowly turned to look at his rider.

"Oh, there it is again," she said, surprising Hollis. "You two were talking?"

"He was," Hollis said, "I hadn't even gotten a chance to..."

He is too slow to reply sometimes, Synesth bespoke Atuara, who visibly brought in a deep breath and held it, eyes wide. I do like you. I like you more than the one lingering in your memories, much more. He shouldered his way into the Warren's group and I suppose I let him because he had been searched before. But - of course - you know that.

Endless echoes of those childhood and teenage gloats, Thor's constant barrage of 'better than everyone' because he'd been Searched.

"So ... now it is my turn?" Atuara quietly asked.

There was another 'tingling' moment between rider and dragon, which she was unable to follow, but it was easier now, now that the dragon's mind was known to her.

I wish that we had found you earlier, the dragon admitted, but now - yes, now it is your time. And I know that this will be an odd experience, but you should trust that it will turn out all for the best. Our best bet for you is a place that is on our old homeworld. Many like yourself do best with those.

"Like me, born on Pern, you mean." This time she did catch the dragon's 'she catches on quick' thought. And shortly, Hollis caught her sensing that.

"Yes, it's quite common for us. This one though, it is a little more special than that. It's a place you might have been taught, Benden, but it's... distantly into the future. When the Protectorate left that world, it was quite a few centuries before this clutch on their sands."

Her first sign of surprise, she glanced between dragon and rider. "You can do that?"

"We moved the entire Protectorate from one dimension and planet to another," Hollis gave his own smirk and wink, "I think we can handle this too."

**

There were sands filled with the most gorgeous colors - shells broken by dragons that had combinations of shades that the administration in Dawnlight would simply cry over. And these dragons would be big, strong, smart ones. She had the strangest feeling - the tingling was strong, but the contents of any of these amazing dragons minds were behind thick walls, and she did not try to pry. It was one thing to learn to recognize dragon-thought, another entirely to be a telepath, and she was absolutely not a telepath like Hollis.

But even he admitted that he didn't sense the minds of these great dragons, a fact which Atuara could tell he didn't much like. He was used to being the one spying on others, even dragons, and being denied that was unusual.

It didn't matter - because he wasn't here for that, he was here to make sure that Atuara was found by the right dragon. It was a large clutch, one with two mothers. Atuara would learn more about that later, but for the moment she reveled in just being surrounded by all of this. Dragon after dragon - pearly shades, dark ones as black as night, bicolor dragons whose colors rivaled any Alskyran she'd ever seen, and they came in quite the array. Most of these had amazing markings in addition, striking contrasts, speckling and dapples.

And then there was one that seemed all but too perfect for just her. Just Atuara, as if she was made to complement the Purple casted Guardian. She was larger than many of the hatchlings, already. She had a presence that could not be denied. Darkest midnight blue, sprinkled with iridescent rainbow speckling across her back. But then she turned her head, standing up from her shell, and raised the big but inexpertly wobbly wings from her sides. Dramatic wingsails of rose-tinted peachy pink, and along her face, neck, and body were incredible stripes mixing that with a golden color. Like a sunset, like a sunrise, with pale opalescent white along her neck and belly.

Even Hollis's hair stood on end, when she rose to walk toward Atuara.

We are meant to be together, and I will make sure that none harm you the way that you assure your people they will come to no harm.

"Varriath," Atuara whispered, "I - thank you, I will not let you down, we will be one in the air."

That seemed to please this midnight-rosegold dragoness.

**

They trained at Benden for a short time, long enough for the dragonet to grow strong enough to be taken back to their home on Alskyr. Atuara was strong and confident already, and now she'd be able to apply what she knew, as she had once hoped for her ex. She learned that the paperwork had been finished in the meantime - she and Thor were not considered legally together any longer, and her renouncing of their child was official. She was now her own, a rider of what would become a massive queen.

It didn't take long for people down in Dawnlight Hold to take note of all this, particularly once Varriath began her flight training. No one had seen the colors dancing off the undersides of her wings before, even a 'red' Alskyran dragon didn't have that kind of golden-sunset shine. And none had the vivid midnight stripes and back! She took to the air with strength, though not with much grace at first. Of course, every weyrling dragon went through that stage of awkward growth, eating so much they could hardly move, and learning how to strengthen their limbs enough to lift that now-heavy body.

In the course of two full turns, Varriath grew to a stunning size - one that not only rivaled Synesth, but in some ways surpassed him.

I am a queen, we are meant to be larger than the males, she commented quite casually. Besides, he has his mate - Kalareth is lovely, she is a good partner.

Atuara knew that the dragon felt her gut tighten, even now. But she was over it, for the most part, just - sometimes, things like that comment would trigger a memory or two. But the presence of this massive dragon's mind within her own, buffering it from intrusion and filling it with a pure and real adoration, allowed Atuara to reflect in a better light.

"You know what I would like to do?"

Of course I do. I should announce myself first, though, I do not think they have room for me to just drop in unannounced.

It would be quite true: Eden's Gate had a courtyard fit for dragons, since their riders needed it, but not one of them was even close to her size! They would go meet up with her sisters - Jan and her husband and their own now-rider children, and ... Renice, 'Cybertiger', with her own amazing dragon.

The younger pair of J'rett and Janet stood in absolute awe of this grand queen. Though truth be told, Janet's little blue and gold male stood his ground and even appeared to want to compare his color scheme to hers! Which, at first, Atuara hoped wouldn't make the queen anxious or angry, but instead the queen proudly stood and insisted he raise his paler gold wingsails strongly, and march in place for her.

That will do, young Nakatoth. She looked toward the white-nosed much-darker blue Wanangath. You have my attention, to which the littler midnight blue gave a poised nod and turned in a narrow circle to show off his own careful moves. They will make good defenders, Varriath asserted broadly, addressing not only her own rider but everyone else nearby.

It was clear at that point, that Atuara would remain here, though there were golden queens from Pern still residing in their own comfortable hillside weyrs, this was one to absolutely be reckoned with and would be available to move between worlds as easily as time. Perhaps she'd even be on hand to pick up Thor and his - still awaited - dragon...