Though she was well aware of the lateness of the evening, it seemed that gold Breaundath was quite restless. From their spacious weyr near the top of the newly carved Outlook, Breaundath’s tail lashed at first with care, but then with quite a bit of energy.

My one, I hunger.

Though she was about to quip then go eat something, Patina’s sleepy mind knew perfectly well what this hunger was about. She’d been distracted for days, trying to get those weyrling-riders to stop falling off their dragons and hurting themselves, draining the resources of their Weyr’s infirmary. But the kids weren’t the distraction. The dragoness was. Patina had to all but sequester herself before she actually made mistakes while calculating just exactly how many glass vials they were going to need from the craft hall.

“Breaundath.” Patina stated flatly, staring up at the dark ceiling, “it’s not even dawn. Can your hunger wait a candlemark?” There was a long pause, in which Patina sighed audibly and added, “bree. AUN. dath.”

It cannot. I cannot wait.

“Fine, then... I’ll alert ... someone.” She almost drifted back to sleep, but the motion of her mid-sized golden dragon roused her more fully. Every move she took, Breaundath felt more energetic, more predatory - but her intended prey was not those wherry in the upper pens, or even the stray herdbeasts that still roamed the beach below. Though both of those things did catch her glittering, red-orange eyes.

Patina narrowed her own intensely green eyes and thought if you take even one bite of meat off those creatures, so help me, I will pull it out of your mouth myself.

Testy, testy, the dragoness jibed.

“You know I don’t like being awakened this early,” she muttered back, thinking about putting more presentable clothing on and realizing just how chilly the floor would have been, had they not put in those heating units while the weyrs were being installed up here.

The Outlook was quite grand, placed on the island known as Snow’s Breath framing the bay below the original Weyr. Over the last two decades, it became clear that there wouldn’t be nearly enough room for the fighting ranks needed to actually fight Thread now that it was falling in earnest - or for the queens that wanted their space. They had crowed about how they had room for ‘ten queens’, and the Weyr had surpassed that number a while ago. Threadfall would be bad, very bad, given those numbers seemed to be repeated around the world’s Weyrs. Dragons somehow always knew when they were needed. And apparently, this queen was ready to match the challenge of that baleful crimson orb that hovered even now, so close to the planet.

Because she usually tended records more than patients, Patina asserted that having a more central weyr nearer all the other communities they dealt with would be of use. She was not the only gold-rider on this mountain. But right now, she was the only one who knew that Breaundath was about to rise in a mating flight. And getting that information across the bay and into the other half of the Weyr was essential.

For someone without a firelizard to send out to rouse others, Patina didn’t fuss about it. Given that she, like her grandsire S’xon, could telepathically connect to humans as well as dragons, the rider smirked and decided that alerting those grandparents first was in order. After all, Kira would be even more furious to be awakened before the dawn - let her do the heavy work of announcing it.

It wasn’t gentle, the poke that Patina aimed at her grandmother the Weyrwoman. But she hadn’t really meant it to be as sharp as all that. However, with the content of the brief connection being gold rising get them out to the skies, Kira honestly couldn’t blame her. Within minutes, large fires were stoked along the pathways around the exterior of the Weyr’s perimeter. They were burning in a color unusual for ‘fire’, a brightly yellow shade perhaps emulating the queen that was glowing as well.

Patina and her mother had both often wondered at that mechanism in dragons, how visibly they seemed to brighten and shine when the females were ready to breed. Neither of them had time or effort to waste on learning much more about it - and right now, Patina’s mind was already swimming with her dragon’s errant thoughts.

With it being barely Spring, it would remain dark for several more hours, but down below in the Holds and beach communities life was already starting to stir. After all - bread needed baking, stones needed carving. But Patina wasn’t among those needing to be up before the sun for her own duties around either Weyr or Hold. And her dragoness was leeching grumpy thoughts the entire past handful of days.

Now those thoughts were being focused angrily on the lack of attention. She had nabbed two of the scattered herdbeasts that the locals hadn’t been able to recapture after their use in moving stones around at the seashore building the secondary Weyr. No one bothered: they would be fine where they were, and did exactly what was needed, they bred true, and stuck around for just such an event. They were only half-wild, but they were docile enough not to realize what that massive shape was blotting out the stars, before the dragoness struck. They bleated and screamed, the rest of them scattering while she threw them back and all but squeezed their blood into her throat.

And she screamed as well, a high-pitched sound, not as mighty as she may want.

But Breaundath’s hunger, thirst, wasn’t sated. She would fly up to the more properly penned wherries and take down another three, leaving these animals all behind her in a trail of guts and shredded hide. But their meat would last, and certainly provide for today’s festivities, given the reason they were being drained!

The fires along the Weyr’s cliff sides truly did make for a spectacular sight when Patina finally exited the weyr and stood upon the ledge overlooking that bay. She could claim to see her grandparents’ weyr ledges from there, they were almost at the same height after all. And though anyone else might scoff and say that it was much too far or too foggy over the waters between the mountains, one look from those green eyes, even from behind those fake glasses she wore, would silence them.

No scattering of queens filled the skies, however, when Breaundath more fully screamed her anger and desire from the top of this peak. Though they could clearly hear it, with the way the new Outlook had been constructed, and the original Weyr’s population redistributed among those spaces, even the other queens felt more like watching, than fighting over the males that began to perk up. Smaller lights, those from the torches and more rare electrical lights in newer Weyrs in Outlook, started becoming visible once that first tremendous bellowing started.

She didn’t let up, either. Patina’s sleep-addled and hormone-ridden memories sprang to an evening of drinking with riders and crafters and drudges alike one time, when they had a belching contest.

Do not equate me to some base drunkard!

“Keep belching out those Harper-songs, my one, see if I don’t.”

The dragon’s response was epic. A town drunk - or was it a Harper - would write a ballad about it, Patina was sure. The sounds that came from Breaundath’s lungs was astonishing. The echoing between Weyr proper and Outlook amplified it into a cacophony. One which was shortly answered by several other voices.

Though it was clear that any given dragon on this side of the bay might stand a stronger chance to catch this queen early on, it was also certain that those on the other were at least as able. They were the more experienced males, most of those in Outlook were on the younger side. Breaundath’s vision was clear, and Patina saw with ease - were the bronzes and browns of the Weyr going to just sit there on their tailed asses, or were they going to fly?

A dozen or more dragons had poked their heads out from their shelters in Outlook’s staggered and terraced peak, some blues, though not one green dared do so. Across the bay, Nozomith, the Weyrwoman’s fine queen and mother to many descendants, simply stretched her neck and lounged to look out. This was the dragon that long ago asserted she wouldn’t compete for her spot. Well - her rider anyway. But that was quite a while ago. Kira and Nozomith had a brief telepathic discussion about this, but Nozomith wasn’t in the mood to get angry about Breaundath taking to the skies. The Weyr's first and proudest queen's own last clutch hatched not so long ago, those offspring were hardly old enough to even think about competing here.

Several very interested bronzes and browns had come out from their early-morning snoozing at the behest of this younger bold queen who now shrieked with insistence. What transpired beween the draconic connection among those males led to several of the younger bronzes graciously dipping out, as well as numerous browns, even though they circled flying low over the island's beaches now. They might turn it into a fishing day. Sure. Why not.

One brown was still left, larger than most of the remainined bronzes in fact. Z'zi's Ladaeth led their Taum Pun wing, the next generation and second-shift rotation fighters. He proudly stood on his ledge, high up in the Outlook's tiers, and Z'zi began making his way toward Patina's own weyr. There would be others, of course, and she would put her foot down to a mob scene in the hall.

While other dragons were assembling their courage, and Breaundath continued to gather her own unique information (Patina could sense the judgey-thoughts, who impressed her, who was a surprise, who had more good background-check interaction), Patina herself decided to swagger out into the hall and told one of the weyr brats to inform any of the men showing up that she was 'at the recreation lounge'.

It was dizzying to Patina to be both walking with two feet in the well-lit corridor, as well as seeing the dazzling early-morning sunrise breaking through the low clouds over the ocean past the coast. She blinked away the afterimages that weren't there, and found herself a comfortable chair to wait for the men and to watch her dragon from the huge open-air balcony.

One of those men would arrive before Z'zi, it was G'idu, the rider of bronze Nimoth. A wing leader, of the wing dedicated to other duties with a 'little bit' of fighting if they needed a boost. It was odd how the bronze was considered big, and yet that brown sized him up and found him slightly lacking. At least, that's what their riders were saying when they met up at the balcony's entrance.

Two more bronzes finally took to the sky, of about the same size as Breaundath but very different in form from one another. The slightly larger and burlier Winteth, born of Darkling Dawn's sands and in the same flight wing as the gold, matched pace with the sleeker muscular Eudinth, hatched at Talis just like Breaundath, but with different parentage. Their riders made their way in an unhurried manner toward the lounge, though it was clear that either of them would prefer to have had both a private moment with Patina as well as a bit more rush to their step in getting there.

And last, and one might size him up to say 'least', was another of the Talis Weyr group, whom Patina had faint recollection of having something more special about his line than most. Y'red was also the youngest of the riders, but certainly talented. While not a wing leader, he was among the best of the Weyr's riding trainers!

None of them really paid any attention to all the other people who had arrived in the lounge: from weyrbrats wanting the best view of this event jostling at the corners of the balcony, to Aniz with her flawless memory and ready hands to record the results, as well as, finally, a number of the Weyr's leadership and important people. This was, after all, a queen flight! Some of the kids pointed downwards, indicating that there were also plenty of people coming to their rooftop balconies in the Hold below.

Aniz gently approached the enrapt Patina, and indicated that she could, in fact, write all the private thoughts if desired... She knew that Patina had her own mental powers, what would it be like to -- "Oh!" Aniz blushed, hard, very suddenly, as Patina's mind took her up on that offer, and forced Aniz to have to find a place to sit with her hands dancing over the writing pad trying to keep up.

While one or two other late-comers did attempt to snag a chance to compete with the others, it wasn't Breaundath's screeching nor her bared teeth that fended them off, it was her sleek and sharply aimed thoughts. Aniz only heard the barest side of it, but her own queen provided the translation of the scathing draconic tirade later on. If nothing else, Breaundath was equitable to her rider in her wit and clarity of thought.

(editor's note: Aniz wrote this flight up... with the help of her own dragon!)

They will need to prove many things to me, that queen bespoke as she rose higher into the morning sky. But I will not be brought to the sands by anyone less than glorious.

And glorious they were. The four bronzes and their massive brown companion circled the Outlook as their queen continued to reach for the clouds. She was brighter than the morning sun which had barely crept up as a sliver beyond the sea, but far more visible to the keen draconic eyes of her suitors than the humans on the ground far, far below. Their necks craned and eyes squinted, pointing and cheering the males on as they then began to follow upwards.

While it did seem that some of the men gathered around the lounge would rather have allowed their dragons' mood to influence their behavior, none of them dared to approach the handsome woman on her couch. Her eyes fixated at a spot unseen, somewhere in the distance, as Breaundath was silent but plotting. The dragon paused at the top of her climb, wisps of the morning clouds evaporating on her brilliant and heated hide. Then she determined her course, nose straight downward, pushed hard and then folded her wings, plummeting toward the land once more.

The faintest of smirks danced across Patina's lips, while the men all but rabbited away as their dragons scattered to allow her through. At that speed, not one of them could have survived an impact! What was she up to!?

While this briefly shook the dragons, the bronzes and their brown companion rapidly dove in what looked like their own unique wing formation, following the trail of their queen but far enough behind that if she changed course abruptly they'd be able to move out of her way once more. Sensible. Notably it seemed that the smallest of them, Achath, would be hard pressed to keep up that pace, and trailed just a little behind - leading some to consider him out of the race already.

But it wasn't he that dropped out first, when Breaundath abruptly snapped her wings open and spun in a roll to follow the road down from the Outlook into the Hold below - at several dozen meters just barely above that road, at this speed, it was Winteth who balked and shook himself free of the group, barely avoiding a crash with one of the taller trees, bursting what was left of the last snow off of its branches in a plume that followed behind him.

Y'run bowed to the others, but remained on the ledge, walking more toward the balcony itself so he could watch the rest, as his dragon contemplated how they'd possibly have gotten any of their work done if he showed up to a tithe collection with a broken neck.

Breaundath continued to actively spin in that roll as she ascended the side of the Outlook, her unpredictable wings making it impossible for the males to find a time to get closer. Though she was far from the biggest queen they had, it would take delicate skill to catch her, not just brute force.

When she finally stopped her corkscrew-like rolling (to the relief of her rider who was becoming rather motion sick just sitting on the couch) Breaundath actively struck the side of the mountain with her claws, pausing for only the barest of moments to allow the males to get just-a-touch closer. Obviously Eudinth realized what she would do first, and dodged downwards, as the queen sped over his head. But in ducking, he struck Nimoth who had been attempting to do the same thing only in an upward direction! While they clashed, it thankfully wasn't at high speed, nor at a very high distance over the snowy hillside. They both skidded to a halt down that mountain in a pile of half-melted snow, cooling their tempers as well as their pride.

Apparently both dragons had some choice thoughts for one another, which Aniz did not deign to record. She didn't even know that dragons knew those terms! G'idu and R'kal certainly did, but they were just as stunned as the rest and decided to have drinks (this early?! THIS early?) to settle their dragons' hot thoughts.

The biggest and the smallest now remained in the air with the gold. And she led them on a chase that tested both of them. Achath wisely held back, he was hardly bigger than most normal browns, let alone the size of the one competing for the queen right now. He kept himself paced, watching. Breaundath did not take any existing method into account when she wove over and under or doubled back, switching her wing leads and confusing her partners.

But Ladaeth attempted more than once during that complex maneuver to catch her, each time reaching just-a-touch closer than before. He believed, firmly, that the queen was tiring. After all, he was bigger than she by a few feet! And he was beginning to show signs of that wear too!

Come to the ground, let our clutch be glorious! The brown announced.

But that seemed to only make the queen seethe! She paused at the top of an arc, and instead of offering her tail she offered the brown only her snarling maw!

Prove your worth, then! Where will I go next? She demanded; broadly, almost every dragon in the whole Weyr heard her.

She sped up the side of Outlook, breezing past the lounge's balcony and causing a fair few of the kids still there to fall from her huge windy wake. That was nothing compared to the blast of wind from Ladaeth's wings as he powered upwards after her. The queen led her bronze suitor on a furious chase, zig-zagging and using stalls, loops, and twists to prove that as a 'smaller than him' gold, she was far too wily for his efforts.

He nearly got her once more, though, as she truly was beginning to tire now. The sun had fully risen, the mountains bathed in its glow that all but paled still in comparison to the dragoness and her suitor...s.

Where had he gone, that small bronze? Breaundath screeched as Ladaeth's strong foreclaws nearly snatched her shoulders, but she pulled a trick from a wing rider's book - turning hard onto her side and aiming at the very mountain they circled, she literally scraped him off of her causing a ruckus below as rocks and snow dumped downwards.

The brown wasn't to be deterred so easily, but it wasn't he that caught the dragoness while she righted herself after Ladaeth let her go. She'd climbed up again, hardly weak and wobbly but definitely not at full speed. And Achath had been waiting, cruising slowly at a middle altitude above the peak, waiting for just this moment. A moment when Ladaeth bellowed and all but begged, you should be mine!

And yet she is not, Achath chided, I knew where she would be, as required... Right here, sorry wing leader, sometimes at the front of the action isn't where you want to be...

The red-haired and named Y'red seemed at once pleased and surprised, just a little, that the massive and sure wing leading dragon hadn't anticipated this. But then... his own dragon Achath had always been smart and quick. He'd learned quite a bit from Y'red's riding with runners and catching stray goats - what seemed like a random path through the area would only end up in some very particular places after all.

Y'red felt a strange pull in his gut when the dragons rose back into the skies, higher than the Outlook by a long shot, and drifted far and wide before coming back to roost. Obviously he - and his dragon Achath - were used to controlling their own flight path, but Breaundath had her own ideas about where they would properly mate.

Patina's eyes were closed, she was certainly enjoying the results of the flight, but still she patted the couch beside her and Y'red obeyed. Thankfully she'd broken the telepathic contact with Aniz, and also thankfully they did not, in fact, 'get busy' right then and there...

Aniz confirmed details about each of the riders and dragons who had participated, and then even went as far as interviewing the kids and other observers on the balcony for their perspective. Soon enough, within days, her 'report' of the event was found in print all over the Weyr and Hold! Not a few days later, also it was found on desks and inboxes across Pern ... and beyond. It would be a while before the eggs would be laid and begin hardening, so perhaps it would be an Autumn hatching? With a gold and bronze in combination with the lengthy time they spent together in the air, it would definitely be a good hatching to lead into the full 11th Pass. Would they be large and hardy? Sleek and swift? Probably both!

Participants in this flight:
Patina's Gold Breaundath, 14' s, quite the queen, haughty, loud, confident

G'idu's Bronze Nimoth, 15' s, peaceful, durable, knowledgeable, a wing leader
Y'run's Bronze Winteth, 13'6" s, strong and healthy, a tithe collector in Breaun's wing
R'kal's Bronze Eudinth, 12'6" s, poised, solitary, tense, security wing rider
Y'red's Bronze Achath, 11' s, clever, jovial, weyrling trainer
Z'zi's large Brown Ladaeth, 16' s, bold, confident, wing leader