The Healing Den had its hands full right at the moment. Several wings of Protectorate dragons had been dispatched back to the old world to help out in the construction of a new weyr, and unexpectedly had been caught in a huge electrical storm. The scent of burnt dragon skin and singed human hair filled the area.

There had been no fatalities, fortunately, but there were injuries aplenty. Baeris watched her daughter work, from across the large cavernous room. Her hands were full as well, with a green who'd collided with a blue and wound up tangled in his talons. Rael whistled at the other healers, when a big bronze came limping in.

It would take all night, but the dragon healers managed to sew up the gigantic gash in the dragon's wing. He would fly, but not any time soon. Rael breathed a sigh of relief when the rider came in, also hobbling from a broken ankle, but he was taking his dragon's injuries in stride.

"Heard you headed up the operation," Ari's said. He was a burly man, suited to his bronze. "Thanks. Canarth wants to get back in the air as soon as he can."

"Well tell him that won't be any time soon!" Rael said, glancing back at the big Sapphire-born dragon. Canarth bugled a loud, angry blast, but didn't try flaring his wings or anything stupid. That made Rael give a little nod.

"So... you want to make sure my foot's okay? I don't want to be walking on it too much..." Ari's said, a purr in his deep voice. Rael had heard that tone before, and she looked Ari's up and down before frowning.

"I think you've got the wrong healer," Rael snorted, but not so unkindly as she could have. She was tired, but it was the sort of tired exhiliration that healers, scholars, and engineers got when they were finally done with some brilliant piece of work. "But let's get you to the rest wing anyway. I'll make sure you've got some warm bread and I think someone thought to bring back enough to feed these dragons... I hope they remembered the riders..." Rael trailed off, as she helped the mountain of a rider off to the secluded, quiet recovery area.

It was close enough to the dragons that the riders didn't have to travel far to see their injured prides-and-joys. It was far enough away from the other activities in the Healing Den that Rael wouldn't have to travel through it every time she checked on the dragons. Thank goodness for that, she thought, as she tucked Ari's in for the evening and actually tolerated a good-natured (if *ever so Bronze-rider*) pinch on the butt from him.

Rael's dreams were troubled. There was something up, drifting among the riders there were words to the effect that another very special clutch was going to be laid, at Isla. That was a great weyr, Rael had documented a number of good sound riders through the Den that rode Isla dragons. They were healthy, one might almost say sturdy in their build.

She liked them immensely, when she got to meet them. Laying on her warm comfy bed, as Phantus gently snored above her head on the headboard, Rael thought about those dragons of the Protectorate. She knew that one of the Alabaster folk, Tekata, had just bonded a beautiful gold from Isla' normal sands.

But the whispers that Rael heard were of their other sands... The odd altered dragons. Was there a possibility? In dreams, she flew with a dragon strong of wing and stout of body... She never could determine the color of any dragon she rode in her dreams -- they were just *her* dragon, no more and no less.

She lay awake, after a night of tossing and turning, wondering and aching to know more. What if there was a clutch? Wouldn't it be -- well, of course it would be a good hatching. They always were... But what if Baeris wouldn't let her go? Or what if... She had never been searched?

The reality of it was that Rael HAD been searched, long before. And Tessrabia had gone to Talor Cliff's "last clutch" and come back with a triumphant gold! No gold would suit Rael of course... Half the night's dreaming was about how annoying it was that any man would hit on her if given half the chance. She was her mother's daughter -- beautiful in ways but too proud to be anything but her own image of perfection. Many people called her a tom-boy, which made Rael wonder -- shouldn't it be tom-girl? After all, she was STILL a girl, last she checked.

The morning came as it did in the Den without sun. There were soft, elegant lights which came on everywhere when it was dawn. At 'noon' it was brighter, in the evening some of the fringe dens (like hers) would become almost completely dim. But the main halls always had a white glow to them. Perpetual morning-light.

Rael got up with difficulty. Her overworked arms and back needed a good rubdown, but she was needed herself, in the dragon healing chambers. Apparently, Phantus brought back this information from his morning food-stealing venture, several of the greens got into a bit of a fight over who was braver. Bringing their stitching open, and causing their riders to have their well-deserved fits of anger.

As Rael distractedly helped calm down and patch up one of the greens, she knew that whatever rank of dragon she would ride, it certainly couldn't be a green either. They were so ... green! Flighty and over-emotional, oh, how it would gall her if there was a green on the sands with her name in its mind! Not that she really thought to be disinterested in any dragon -- but idle thoughts would go where they would go. She was hardly one to deny her own thoughts about it.

No gold, certainly -- too much required intimacy! And a green, oh no. Too much *vountary* required intimacy. If that could be a phrase! But what about the clever, quick blues? And the bold, daring browns? If Rael could hope for a bronze -- hah! A man's version of a gold?! She chuckled to herself, making the rider of the irate green scratch her head in wonder at the healer as she stepped away.

Her mother Baeris looked oddly at her second daughter. All day, it seemed, Rael's head was in the clouds. That was a fine place for a rider, but no place for a healer's. At the end of the short day of work, Baeris strode over to her black-haired daughter and gently grasped her elbow. Rael almost jumped, causing both of their fire lizards to flitter off their respective shoulders and teleport away.

"Motherrrr," Rael said, rolling her eyes. "What is it?"

"You've been rather odd all day. What is it?" Baeris asked, her even, strongly-blue eyes boring into her daughter's pale fog-slate colored ones. Rael lowered her eyes quickly -- this was a game that Baeris didn't normally play with her own children. Rael wasn't very good at it, at least not with her mother. An angry or frantic rider, or even a dragon, she could stare down. But not Baeris.

"Well," Rael said, as they went where Baeris wanted to lead them, into her office chambers overlooking the healing area. "There are people talking... About this clutch."

"Ah," Baeris said, flatly. "I see."

Baeris sat in her chair opposite her daugher, her second-oldest... Blue eyes simply looking. They were not hard, Rael thought. She knew that her mother was prone to bouts of anger and didn't hesitate to tell anyone what was on her mind. If something was wrong, Baeris would say it. Loudly.

Her mother had the reputation that she was quite the stormy woman. It would figure that her dragon bond was somewhere between green and gold. Rael gulped, and said, "mother?"

"Yes," Baeris said, "go on."

"Well, there's the thing. I don't know any more about it than that. Isla is having a clutch, a special one."

"Isla weyr is stocked with good dragons." Baeris noted. Her eyes flickered from her daughter to a set of map-like objects on one wall. "And is not so very far away."

Rael took in a breath. "Could I -- go?"

"Not yet," Baeris said. Rael deflated and sank into the chair, sullenly.

Then Rael ground her teeth down, and looked back up at her mother. "... What does that mean, mother?" Rael's inflection on the last word made Baeris smirk inwardly. Outside, however, her olive mask of expression did not shift.

"It means, daughter, that you should remain here while our large guests are still recuperating." Baeris folded her fingers into a steeple, and looked at Rael's face while the girl mulled this over.

"It could be too late, when they're healed." Rael decided to say.

Baeris openly grinned now, and Rael's eyebrows furrowed. "Why are you grinning like that?"

At last, Baeris couldn't stop from giggling a bit. "Because, Rael, it does not matter when you leave here, you will arrive in more than enough time for the clutch to hatch for you."

Rael's little lips dropped into an open mouthed silent question.

"Because the dragons can teleport -- how do you think they get here? They only know we are open, but they come when they are able to be assisted properly. Today, the sign over the entrance says 114, and that is only for those who have been in the electrical storm." Rael nodded, and her mother continued. "Next time you look, it will say something else, and we will have time between to fix ourselves something nice to eat and get a good sit-com on the television viewer."

Rael blinked. She blinked again. She *knew* these things, yet had never had the chance to experience them for herself. Never out on dragonback long enough to know how to orient on the number above the entrance to the Healing Den's hall, and certainly she only knew the dragons' anatomy. She had rarely tried to converse with the riders and learn how they got where they had been.

Rael ground her jaw around again. "Perhaps you're right," she announced, "I do not know enough yet! I didn't even realize!"

Baeris nodded and reached across the desk and took her daugher's hands into her own. "But you will. You'll have time to learn what you need to know. I have lots of files about weyrling training, if you want to look through them while you're not busy with the dragons."

Rael was surprised by her own eagerness. "I would love to see them!" She paused, and then hesitatingly said, "so, I can go to the hatching?"

"it's a genetically engineered clutch," Baeris said. "And your sister came back from Talor Cliff --"

"With her gold, I know, I know..." Rael sighed.

"What's the matter, sweet?"

"I surely don't wish a gold upon myself... Can you imagine? All those men expecting me to -- perform for them --" Rael snarled. Baeris nodded, her eyes closing a bit.

"I can imagine, and I can also imagine you riding that golden hued wonder into your own battlefields." Baeris glanced back up at Rael. "But you will not come back to me with a queen, even if it is a gold, I think."

Wondering what that meant, Rael shook her head, and scampered out of the office.

Baeris leaned back, and summoned her blue Striker to her side. "You take this to Yakima, won't you dear Striker?" She wrote a small scroll to the weyrwoman of Isla, and their scientists. It read shortly of how Rael was well-trained in dragon healing but was not very socially engaging. Baeris sighed. If only her daughter would realize what a clever and healthy girl she really was... Well, she would know someday. Perhaps she might be in a flight, or perhaps she would just find the right man -- or woman, as the case might be -- to explain to her.

Striker waited until Baeris was finished with the note of recommendation -- it included information about the girl's age and her search, her prior experience, and the way that she would work herself half to death just to save another person's dragon. Then, the blue flit carried the message away... Soon, Rael would be carried away on a transport dragon to Isla and perhaps -- perhaps she would come back upon a grand and perfect dragon.

t took what seemed like forever and a day for the eggs to properly harden and start to hatch, at least to those who had been taken to Isla earlier. In the time before Rael was sent to Isla, she'd been carefully instructed in things like tack maintenance, flight awareness, and proper ground-weyr information. Rael learned but slowly. Especially the parts about who to address as whom and why it was important to follow the weyrling master's instructions.

Stubborn girl. But when she was ready, she was taken to Isla. It was actually less than a week before the eggs hatched. To her joy, she was allowed to tour the grand facilities -- they reminded her of something not found on Pern or Alskyr or anywhere else, but a place she'd been to in dreams. Bad dreams, but dreams none the less. It almost frightened her, knowing that the eggs were deposited directly into their little vats and kept away from real sands and real care.

She'd offer her dragon the best care she possibly could. No doubt! No two ways about it!

Somehow, when the time came for the hatching, Baeris found her way to Isla on her greeny-gold Dulath. Most likely she looked up the records on some machine back at the Healing Den and discovered what hour and what time of year it had taken place, written a post-it to herself, and went at her leisure.

Rael stood watching many -- many -- eggs as they hatched. They weren't going easily, either. As Tess had said from Talor Cliff, they were too hard, these eggs. They had hardened beyond normal means, and the adult dragons helped many of the hatchlings out. Some didn't really need it, and all of the hatchlings were simply spectacular.

You couldn't get a better looking bunch of hatchlings off the Healing Den's sands, Rael thought. There were two-colored dragons and solid colors like no one had ever seen. Granite and stone shades, copper mixed with blue... Oh, they were all the most beautiful things in the world! Any world! And, transfixed, Rael watched as almost the whole bunch of eggs broke open and went off to their bonds. She bit her lip. Would she really be bonding here? Even though she was 'assured' of an egg, a hatchling, there was one which went straight up into the stands and bonded to someone from the labs! That might have meant one egg short.

But her worry was unfounded. A silver-white ran past, looking at someone else, while a beautiful black and golden hatchling strode up to Rael. This was certainly not what she expected!

Do you like me, Rael? I am Tintalleth, but I'm no queen. The dragonet insisted. She was strong, tiny like the rest of the hatchlings (the size of a typical blue).

"Not with those wings and your size," Rael said with a grin. She was a bold little one! Gobbled up her meal and tried to head for the others' bowls of fresh meat as well. But Rael had always known that hatchlings shouldn't gorge themselves!

The feel of a dragon's mind within her own was more comforting than she'd ever imagined. Not at all like the invasive telepathy that she'd experienced from human riders with the talent, or from dragons who decided to broadcast their thoughts. This was her own dragon's mind, soft and secure, within hers. It would always be there. It felt like she always had been there too.

Tintaleth grew at the same pace as the other dragons in her clutch, that is to say quicker than expected yet excruciatingly slowly when needed. The dragoness was never going to be much bigger than a medium sized blue, but that suited Rael just perfectly fine.

While they were still at Isla, Rael and Tintaleth were instructed in the ways of flight - however Rael wanted to learn more about the tactics of fighting than she would need when she got back to the Healing Den.

I know why you want to learn those things. Because if I do rise for a flight, then I will be able to fight them off. Those young males over there have been looking at me funny all this time and I think it's because they think I'm a queen!

"You'll be much faster than any male, even the quickest blue, Tin. I trust you. I want to learn these things because then... If I go back to the old world with you to heal, I will know what the injuries are all about."

You want to go get injured?

"That is not what I said," Rael sighed. "I mean, there are still dragons who come into the Healing Den, injured from their battles from whatever world they live upon now. I don't want US to become hurt, I just want to see how others become that way."

I understand. I still think it's because I will be rising some day, and I will outfly them all.

Rael patted the small dark and gold dragoness on her shoulder, and smiled softly. "I know you will."

Those charts were way out of date. Rael and Tintalleth drifted through space and time until she finally recalled the number that her mother had quoted that fateful day. 114! Now, how long had she spent learning her lessons (grumble!) and then how long between then and her travel to Isla... How many days?

They were all blurry, so many days. Weeks, months... But Rael knew that she would return before the two years of her stay at Isla were complete. So... what, one year? A ... a whole year Den time? Was that right? Tess was gone only a few months. Would that be okay?

"One fourteen..." Rael muttered, "plus say, well, let's just give it one hundred. So Two fourteen."

Two-fourteen. I suppose that is as good a number as any. I will get us home. I am tired, though.

"We've had a lot of adventure."

I do not much care for it. I would rather be at home. I have never even seen this home of yours, and I am interested in it. NOW!

Tintalleth stamped her foot and shook her golden head.

"Well then let's go. Mother won't know. Will she?"

I do not know, because I have never met her.

"Well," Rael said while snugging down her weather worn riding tack - hoping that its extreme use wouldn't betray their travels right off, "don't tell her about our little travel. It's not something she needs to know about."

Okay... Then can I fly?

Rael blinked. The dragon was serious - after half a year of random travel lost among the stars and through time, Tintalleth was an adult and she was ready to have her first mating flight. That would have to wait. Would she fly at the Den? Or somewhere else?

Rael put those thoughts out of her head, and concentrated on 214 - the way that the numbers would be glowing over the entrance ... they rose into the sky over the ravaged planet they had been on. The darkness enveloped the pair, and they vanished to the Nexus.