Lee - written around 2001

Oh, she's a rough one. Leeree prefers to be called just Lee, and she has the fists to back up her opinion. She was at one time headed to be a guard for Dawnlight, but that fell through when she and the trainer became rather heated enemies.

She learned from her experiences, but she also keeps her opinions. Her long-time friend and mate Vannar will hope to stand together on the Sands. Leeree -- sorry, Lee -- has other skills than just guarding type duties. She is very expert at handling animals and machinery alike, and is not afraid of large animals such as oxen or cartbeasts. She loves to drive large carts overland, and many of the trails which she and the other Outcasts take were blazed by her!

She is a very vicsceral woman, remarkably aggressive, and with good reasoning behind her ways. Unfortunately since she was tossed out of Dawnlight, her attitude toward most authority has been somewhat poor. She responds to certain people and just not others, even if they deserve it.

In her opinion, Shard and Triia would make the best weyrleaders ever, but then again... She keeps that to herself. Jeremoth knows she feels this way, but has somehow managed to keep it between them. A gold rider and a blue! How preposterous...

She wishes that life on Pern wasn't threatened by Thread. Her lovers eyes as well as hers are protected by the special glasses made by Shim'a at Alabaster, and she hopes that some day, all the riders will have safer equipment. She's seen how badly hurt she can get while fighting thread, and doesn't really relish it, though she will never shy away from it.

She wants to fly either blue or brown. She knows that this will bring her directly in competition with Vannar but he doesn't much care about that, they would make best wing partners as well as weyrmates.

"He's just right behind us!" Leeree gasped, her gold hair whipping around her face. "It can't be this hard! It just can't be!"

Beside her, on his own runner, Vannar concentrated on the road ahead. It was bumpy, rocks strewn around, and had low hanging branches everywhere. It was not the best road to be trying to get through, right now.

It was the only road they had.

The pair of outcasted Dawnlight Hold inhabitants raced with their not-really-stolen runners, and hoped that they could simply outdistance the Hold guards by being clever.

"Stop!" cried one of those guards, "thieves!" When a crossbow bolt whizzed over Lee's head, she ducked, and hoped that the idiots wouldn't hurt J'or's steeds! And with that thought, she growled. Then, she pulled in the reigns and urged the runner to a slower pace.

"What are you doing!?" Yelled Vannar, "they'll catch up!"

"They think we're horse thieves," she snarled. "And we aren't. These belong to J'or, not to Dawnlight. Remember?"

Vannar slowed his own runner, the one which was actually a racing beast, and they turned, as the guards arrived. Stone faces on both the guards, but one of them recognized Lee.

"You! Troublemaker in the flesh," he said as he dismounted his own runner. "Now, if you hand over the reigns you'll probably only be beaten and fined."

"We'll not be beaten by the likes of you, nor your filthy Lords," Leeree spat. "These runners belong to a bronze rider by the name of J'or, and he's requested them back. He hadn't expected Dawnlight to just appropriate them like they did."

The guard sputtered. His hand rested on his hip, where a sharp knife was in a sheath. Lee noticed it, and made certain that the guard knew she had. "They're abandoned runners! No arrangements were made!"

"That's where you're wrong," said a voice from behind the two runners. The steeds brightened at the sight of their red-haired owner, and he rubbed the muzzle of the one Lee rode. "These are mine, and I am a bronze rider, and I'd take care if I were you. The roads are dangerous this time of day."

He thumbed up to where a towering figure stood, obscured by some of the trees, but now visible as the outline of a great Bronze dragon! The smaller blue Jeremoth swooped down behind the guards, and startled both they and their runners.

"Go home," Shard said, eyes narrow. "And tell Spencer that this time he's getting off easy. It might have been a misunderstanding. But the three letters of request that J'or sent weren't responded to, so ... I doubt that this was a mistake on his part. He's too smart for that."

The guards retreated, and the pair of dragons and their riders escorted the "horse thieves" back to the small outcast community called Eden's Gate. Wined and dined, they were happy.

Even more happy when Leeree and Vannar were told by the blue rider that Aneris weyr was now having a strangely new breed of dragons on their sands. "Same sands, different look. I was... pretty surprised, myself. Their blood is strong, and Jere assures me that you two would be good for the eggs there."

The pair cackled wildly into the evening...

***

They waited several sevendays, Lee and Vannar. Aneris weyr was a good place to be, they both liked it. They both got in trouble often enough to keep them happy, and often enough to keep others annoyed.

Just the way they liked it.

Then, one very late evening, the dragons began bugling.

"Oh, why NOW?" Leeree groaned, just having donned her night clothes and crawled into her cot. She didn't much like that she had to be separated from Vannar after they might impress, but she lived with it.

The bunch of candidates shuffled their way down to the dim hatching sands. A number of people wanted to place bets, but most of them were so tired they could barely hold their head up!

Leeree watched with Vannar and the rest as a brown started off the hatching. Two greens hatched, and everything was well on its way! The excitement of the hatching -- really being there -- finally caught up with Leeree.

A blue, green and a bronze hatched, and Shilawn, one of the other Eden's Gate candidates, impressed him. Leeree leaned to Vannar and nodded, "that's a good choice. He likes kids..." She shuddered, and Vannar nodded down to the sands.

Just before his warning could be uttered, the blue dragonet that had hatched tumbled right into Lee! She fell on her backside, but since she was well used to falling and fighting, she got herself up and hugged the blue.

I am happy you like me! I will never be quite like that bronze brother of mine, though!

"You're good enough for me, Tekoath! His name is Tekoath!" She cried to Vannar.

***

Lee and Tekoath flew over the small wherry pen, their first flight done with. Of course, they scared the wherry to a tizzy, in that pen, but that's what they were good for, in Leeree's mind.

As a reward, the blue dragon was allowed to pick off one of those fretting wherry, just for himself. He was down to eating only about once a week, if that, now. It was a relief to Leeree and V'ann and all the other weyrling pairs, that their dragons no longer needed to be fed by hand. And no longer so much!

But I enjoy the food, Bespoke Tekoath. I enjoy hunting it best.

"You aren't hunting yet," Lee reminded her dragon mate. "When they're flying wild, then you'll be hunting!"

I will look forward to that! Will they taste as good as this? He asked, blood all over his blue muzzle.

"It'll be better, even. You'll have caught it yourself, and that makes it much much better!"

***

Thread fell the day that Lee and V'ann and Sh'awn were meant to leave Aneris. Obviously, their duties to the weyr came first! They'd been among thread fighting wings the entire two turns they'd been in the weyr.

Lee and V'ann threw themselves onto their dragons, aching for the chance to fight thread before joining their wings in the Protectorate.

I think there is a bit around here somewhere-- OOOH! It hurts!

Between! Between now! Leeree's mind screamed, as the blue's wing edge was scored by Thread. The burning, burrowing stuff hadn't caused much damage, but it was quite painful being where it was! The finger joint of the blue's wing had been crossed with the thread, and when they came out from between, the dragon was forced to land because the sail on that wing couldn't be stretched fully. That would only slow down the others.

Lee watched the dragon healers as they patched large strips of numbweed and leathery stuff onto her dragon. Her own phantom pain, in a wing which didn't exist on her body, made her sure that that sort of thing wouldn't be happening again!

My mind was on leaving for the Protectorate, she bespoke. It's my fault. You were so eager to get out there, I should have been right there with you.

It is all right, the numbweed stuff is good. It feels very good...