Jasna's first memories include sitting on her uncle's shoulder looking up at the sky. The sky shortly began to rain Thread - her uncle died trying to rescue those who had been caught in it.

Her world had been shattered that day. She was only four years old, and her uncle had been her idol. He was teaching her to read and do maths, to sing ballads, he was a Harper. Why did he have to die? Why couldn't he have taken her to the Guild hall and let her learn all sorts of things. It had taken all the wind from her sails, his death. She stopped looking at books, turned more to physical skill and stealth to entertain herself.

Her two older brothers, older by enough to attend dances and gathers while she was kept at home attended by drudges, had traveled just enough to find wives in the sea Hold nearby, bringing them back to Delta happy as could be. Jasna was furious at them for it. She recalled times when they would play or at least tend to her needs. Now they'd brought these foreign women to the Hold, taking up space that she was supposed to be using. That she'd given up on her studies was obvious to the elders in her family, and the rooms which would have been hers therefore rapidly grew into nursery chambers instead. Still, no matter the fault, Jasna resented that too.

Jasna's recourse was naturally to complain to her friends. They put up with it because she refrained from doing so where they might get in trouble, mocking elders only when they were out of earshot. Plus, she threw a mean dart - and they could play such games in the halls without attracting any further undue attention. Talking to one another while sporting weaponry was something only Yannic's scary old gra'ma worried about. (And don't let Jasna start about that woman!)

But since so many betrayals - however imagined they might be - had plagued her life, Jasna was one to wait it out and vent at just the right time. She has become rather close-minded about who she speaks to, what she says. While some folk mistook her politeness and demure behavior toward high-status Lords for her womanly virtues, her friends knew well that it was merely biding her time, in order to spot weaknesses that she could then exploit later. She was yet too young to truly be married off, but she knew her mother intended to do so soon enough. That was not on her agenda at all.

Some day she would go to a guild hall. She would pick up her studies where she left off. Sure, she'd be far behind others who might have the luxury of a Harper nearby. But she also knew that she might be the only woman in the class too.

Which sent her on yet another venting rant, every time she thought of it...

Bojan could always get her to calm, to concentrate on something other than her anger. She really liked him, he was cute and fun, and would make her room upon room in his keep once he made something of himself... His family would never be able to afford to give him enough land to make anything more than a little sand-castle. She would sit and plot with him, though, how many places you could put battlements and arrow-slits, fending off those bandits...

The fact that now, Searched and sent to the sands at Darkling Dawn, Jasna would be fulfilling almost exactly the opposite of what she'd desired all these years. Yes, of course she would grumble to herself. But as she had been told by the search riders, she had something to look forward to now! Once reaching Darkling Dawn, Jasna was ready to study, ready to relearn and expand on her stunted vocabulary. Though being in a dragonry still made her itch with memories of that fateful day her uncle died, perhaps she could do what the riders could not, save someone else's idol.

It took a little while to assemble all the candidates, and there was a big storm out there that a few of them (mostly boys) wanted to continue watching even though there were eggs hatching on the sands. A number of non-humans were there, which Jasna had to really steel herself to get used to being around. It was not normal at all for people to have fur, or tails, or whatever else...

A purple hatched first - she had been well aware that these dragons weren't from Pern and therefore could have other colors, but this one was beautiful! She had creamy wingsails! Another purple, and then a brown with silver wings hatched. A large silver one hatched, and as the others had done before her, bonded off to the right person on the sands. (In this case it was... not even alive.)

A tiny green and a big copper hatched together, and the green made a straight path toward Jasna. Jasna felt the growing hunger, the strange pain of light, and the loudness of everything out of the shell - and she knew.

You and I are good together, are we not? I am Kesath, and you are mine.

The green bumped her head into Jasna's hand, and the girl wept with joy. "Yes, we're going to be great together, Kesath!"

dam: bronze Kertakth ((Blue-Starry Fabricantepazth and Black Eirfolkth))

sire: bronze Resanith ((Gold Karieth and White Sharianth))