Dakis strummed his gitar and hummed a little, but he was so worn out from the day's activities that he just couldn't play another note. Not without a good bite of his wherry sandwich, and a draught from the water jug beside his plate. "I think that does it for me," he announced to the table full of revelers, who all began to sigh and whine. "Now now, I'm here all week."

That week was a busy one for this bustling little township to the distant south-west of Dragonhope. However the Weyr was his destination. He'd been hearing all kinds of things about them, how a harper had well and truly pissed off the weyrleaders, how they'd kicked out their harper - or something. This bore investigation. He was a Journeyman albeit a young one. His mature voice and demeanor along with a sharp mind let him walk the tables a few months before now. Fresh on the trail, his feet still hurt and his fingers ached from the amount of strumming they did.

But it was his duty, to the people of Pern. His lifeblood! He so enjoyed bringing the smiles to local's faces, children learning the ballads and their meaning as he sang. Dakis stopped here at this large and fairly well off cothold since they were having a gather. He had a few marks in his pockets, and the more people he visited the more rank he'd eventually have. People talked about the famous harpers, revered some.

He didn't really think he was in their league. After all, those were men of history and lore. Sometimes, he found himself wondering if they were real at all - they had all kinds of things attributed to them. One of them supposedly invented not only the formula for writing music, but three kinds of poetry and a weird paper-folding art. Surely one person didn't do all those things. Didn't they really have musical notation before harper halls were created?

As Dakis marched himself wearily to his inn room, gitar almost trailing on the ground he was so limp from the long day, his mind kept churning. What if... Well, he knew full well that most of the tales he spun while singing were generalizations and not specific historical accounts. But some were dead on - so many different people witnessed one or another event that there were a dozen corroborating pieces of music or stories about it, they had to be true.

But what if some of them weren't? What if ... well, he hardly wanted to think about what would happen if those weyrleaders were right. That Harpers just made stuff up to keep themselves in business? He'd have to see what they were talking about first. It made some amount of sense - he'd seen one story that had been isolated for a couple generations, and brought back into the light, then found out about a written account and the stories were almost inconsolably different.

He drifted to sleep as the parties outside also dimmed and dwindled. The day would bring new songs, new faces. Maybe a pocket full of money, perhaps a girl on his arm...

***

To reward himself for the prior couple days of songsmithing and playing, Dakis decided that today, the second to last day of the gather, he would merely listen and watch. He could take notes, catch some gossip. There was a girl he was watching too, he didn't know her name yet but he would certainly like to. She'd been at one or two of his group song-gathers, and had an admirable if untrained voice.

He caught up with her at the runner stalls, watching for her distinct silver-white-blond hair. Today it was under a wide brimmed hat, but he still saw her long braid. "Excuse me?" He called, "hi!"

The girl turned, curious, and then let off a friendly giggle. "Hello!"

"I've seen you attending some of my performances," Dakis said. "I'm Dakis, Journeyman Harper."

"Oh - Sablana, I suppose I could be called a farm crafter if I'd ever attended a class." She really was lovely, with her spun-light hair, fair skin and stunningly clear pale blue eyes. Not a single freckle or mole resided upon her face, that Dakis could see. And he was in fact looking quite intently. She had the starts of attractive lines around her eyes, she must smile a lot, Dakis thought.

Suddenly without a clue what to say, Dakis glanced around and spied a beautiful bay colored stallion. "Are these all yours?"

"Well," she replied tilting her hat back and revealing more of her silvery-yellow hair, "some of them are. The one you're looking at he's my brother's. The rest over in that stall there," she nodded at it, "belong to another Holder, and the rest here belong to my husband and I."

Oh how that took all the wind from Dakis' sails. But he managed to recover enough momentarily to say, "so, then... you're married."

"Yes, I am, my husband is away at another runner meet, he didn't want to miss this gather because it's so big, but they had already scheduled his race before." She gazed at the runners and then turned with a sly smile, "I wish that he'd been here, you remind me so much of him when we were younger."

"Oh now that's impossible," Dakis knew how to respond to that! "You can't be any older than I am!" Which produced the absoluely time-honored giggle and blush.

"I'll have you know I'm in my thirties," she said quietly, "but people do say I look quite young."

"Then I suspect you've children as well?" Dakis asked, and immediately regretted it. Her expression went tame, eyes averted.

"No, actually we... we don't," she sighed. Dakis again recovered this, and sidled up to the runner pen rail.

"Well, then that is why you've got such beautiful runners here. You've got the time to devote to their care. They're very hard to train, aren't they? And - your husband is a jockey?"

With that, they spent a few hours discussing the sport along with a dozen other subjects. Though his thoughts of romancing a similarly aged girl till the end of the gather had been smashed, he found that Sablana was an amiable and well-mannered, quite intelligent woman. He tried to convince her to pen a letter to the local farmcrafter hall, but had to defer to her wisdom in the matter - he didn't live in this area and she had all her life. That, combined with someone else halfway listening in on their conversation muttered under his breath something caustic about women being crafters and taking the spaces away from the men who 'deserved' to be there - Dakis knew that her chances of attending any classes or getting an honorary knot in the subject were very slim indeed.

As it approached night, Dakis excused himself and headed back to the inn. Actually he realized now that it was a large farm house - a real house, built of stone and brick, mortar and metal and glass. Hard to hurt in even the worst of threadfall - even exposed as it was like this. He noted the other large buildings in the area were also such structures, and asked at the inn's dining room if they served the Weyr, or were independant.

"Oh we still tithe proper," said the innkeeper, "Those fields out there aren't stone and metal, are they. Even so," he said while leaning in a little and dropping his voice, "every few years one or two of the Holders will start talking uppity talk about refusing to fund the Weyr if they hardly ever protect a square meter of our land..."

"That," Dakis said while taking a short drink, "is fairly foolish."

"It is indeed," the barkeep said. "There have been times I've thought it over too, but frankly I care to keep my flesh upon my bones and well within my skin - I've seen folk scarred out on the open plains west of here from thread, it's none too pretty a sight. Plus," he said with a grin and a wink, "the best wines we have are flown in on dragon back from a tiny winery on the other side of the world! Y've never tasted such sweet wine, chilled on dragonback from between!"

Several others who were listening in or holding their own conversations heard that, and let out a cheer - "to Ablan!" They cried. Apparently it was quite popular wine. Dakis had never heard of it, but then he was from a little closer than 'the other side of the world'.

"If you're interested," the barkeep announced, "there is meant to be a cadre of dragon riders flying some in tomorrow for the end of the Gather. I'll reserve us all a bottle, eh?"

While he laughed and cheered with the others, mostly local men, another part of Dakis' mind was churning. Dragonriders! Coming here to the gather? Could he possibly ... no, he couldn't. Perhaps he'd ask - politely - if he could get a lift into the Weyr? Well, that would certainly cut his foot travel down!

***

When morning came, it was already quite loud outside. Though some of the merchants and travelers were already putting their supplies and goods away or pulling down their tents, others, presumably the locals, were doing thriving business. It certainly had been an excellent week for the place, the gather was situated by the crossroads near their village and with two others scattered nearby. The weather had held out wonderfully, if a little warm, but there was no sign of thread and probably none on the way for at least another sevenday.

There were runner races, and immediately Dakis thought to attend. After all, those runners that Sablana and her husband bred and trained were very fine beasts. She spotted him and called him over, her vantage was a much better one since it was down on the track itself.

"So, do you fancy a ride?" She asked him, laughing.

"Me?! No, no! I can hardly muster a straight line myself, let alone guide a beast on one at break-neck speed!" To which she laughed even more. They watched the runners pace, as the jockeys found their best position. Race after race, and by and large, Sablana's horses did well. They didn't win every single race, the bay almost did. But they placed in all but one of the seven races, and at the end of the session - approaching noon - the stable hands got busy washing and cooling the runners down. Bets and offers flowed.

"I do wish that your husband had been here, Sablana," Dakis said as they had to part again. She was needed at her own stables to get the runners back inside her own family's area. She blushed again, but continued to smile boldly.

"Why is that, Dakis?"

"I would like to congratulate him personally for having such a fine, strong and sensible wife. And a lovlier one he could hardly ask for." He bent and took her hand, kissed it gently, and took his leave.

He performed only once more that gather, to a smaller number of the youngest children. He liked children, not perhaps well enough to want a bunch of them for his own brood. He instilled perhaps half a dozen short tunes in their young minds, before the call went out.

Dragons!

They came from between, at just the right angle to block the sun from most of the gather-goers. At the sudden dark spell, everyone looked up, and then shortly cheered. The wing of dragons - it looked to be almost a full wing too - swung around the gather grounds and over the field, then back around to the fallow ground where they were asked to land before hand.

It would do no one any good if they landed on the crops, now would it? And there would always be at least one fallow plot here every season. Dakis spotted the innkeeper trundling away from his homestead, hurriedly looking for one particular rider. He found her, exchanged a small pouch of marks, and in return she helped him carry two cases of bottled wine.

"Chilled to perfection!" He said loudly, and the bar goers rushed to help as well. "Ablan cherry-apple, and black cherry!"

"Cherry wines?" Asked Dakis, and one of the followers laughed.

"Yes, you're new aren't you? The Weyr folk have a deal with the healers and vintners there. All cherry fields, y'know. Some grapes, apples, pears - that kind of thing. But mostly cherry. Won't be pie season until a little later. You should get these folk to take you there!"

"... Have you been there? On dragonback?" Dakis said, stunned.

"Oh aye, sometimes the Ablan hold needs strong backs - three or four of us might go on one brown, it's good labor and excellent rewards... Their baker's second to none!"

Apparently so, for the man's midsection bore that out. As they all neared the pleasant darkness of the inn, the keeper stood by the door and counted bottles as they were put up. He selected two for use, and the others were put in an ice pantry below ground.

They broke open the seal on one bottle and poured it out into small glasses. "Smells just as good as always, Ilina!" The rider grinned and nodded. The bottle was shared by some twenty people, doled out in tiny amounts. But Dakis was impressed, the wine was chilled to perfection, and hadn't even been put in the ice box!

"So... you go between and that ..."

"Almost freezes the wine, yes," Ilina said, "Almost but not quite. The alcohol keeps it from freezing all the way."

"Like your riders?!" Someone shouted, and Ilina laughed along with them. Apparently soused riders had been known to come calling occasionally... Or perhaps they were all coming home from having the men working in the fields - thousands of miles away!

"I've heard," Dakis said to the rider, "that you take workers out to this Ablan Hold?"

"Would you like to go?" Ilina asked. "We won't be headed back there for a few weeks anyway."

"No, no, ... but it's intriguing. Normally I've been told that dragon riders rarely offer simple aid like that."

"Normally," Ilina said, "you would be right. Other Weyrs are quite stingy with their transport duties. But we take them seriously. How else would we manage to keep our relations up with the neighbors? They pay us in food you know." She gave a grin. Her brown hair, up in a top knot, kept slipping in front of her nose and almost into her glass.

"Dragonhope ... sounds so different." Dakis said. The wine was just now starting to hit his brain. He was young enough that he hadn't really gotten smashing drunk, old enough that he could pick and choose among different types of wine for the right meal. He didn't hold a lot of drink though, usually he enjoyed water or simple juice. This wine, while sweet and very distinct, was fairly potent!

"It is different, harper," Ilina said. "I suppose that you haven't heard much about us, since a few years or so ago, eh?"

"I'd hardly heard of you at all, but I did hear about something. I was very curious," he said. His words were still clear in reality but he hoped he wasn't sounding sloshy. Someone poured another inch or so of that darker black-cherry wine into his glass - and it was even more rich in flavor than the first. "I'm still very curious... I heard..." He sipped his wine casually but then swallowed at the knot that had formed in his throat. "I was hearing that you sent the harpers away. How do you give lessons then? Who keeps your ballads?"

Ilina smiled very broadly at that. "Well... there's the thing. I'm one of the senior scribes at the Weyr. The records keeper in fact."

"Oh!" Dakis said, eyes growing wide. "I'm ... I'm..."

"No need to be sorry, I know you'd never have heard. My dear friend and Master at the weyr, Aniz, kind of turned everything upside down for harpers." The way she said it made Dakis wonder - what, were they lovers? Was she being sarcastic? Perhaps it was the wine, but he wasn't getting something here...

"Why is that?" He asked. "A woman master's hardly that unusual these days."

"Yes, but she was sixteen, and replaced the entire post of Weyrharper for a scribe instead. The harper hall near here won't send anyone - you're not from there I can tell. You'd have heard, otherwise." Ilina nodded and again her top knot bounced into her face. It was somewhat comedic, and Dakis stifled a giggle.

Then the reality of what she'd said caught up. "Si... Sixteen? That's only a year older than me and I just walked the tables a few months ago!"

No wonder they didn't speak much at harper halls about Dragonhope! It wasn't because they were off in the middle of nowhere - because they were - but it was because they had done something truly amazing... And without a harper.

He deflated a bit. "Then I guess you probably won't want me to ask you to give me a lift to the Weyr," he said looking at the remnants of the dark wine in his glass. "I mean, being a harper and you being a scribe and all."

"Oh no, it's no problem at all," Ilina said brightly. Apparently she could handle her drink better than the young harper. "In fact you're going to need to. My dimglow of a green out there says she likes you. She wants to sniff you over, see if you're worth sending to the sands."

Perhaps he was drunk. Maybe that was it. Dakis couldn't believe, simply put, that she'd just said she was searching him. Did she? "Did you just search me?"

"Yes, of course I did. Now come along, dear harper boy. You've a weyr to look over. Perhaps we can teach you to write a page or two, instead of belting out songs."

"... But I like singing!" He said, and heard faintly in the background, the bar patrons laughing it up. Ilina took him outside to meet her green, who sweetly tilted her head and trilled.

"She definitely likes you. I wonder why." Ilina said. "Oh, I'm just joking! Honestly you harpers are so serious!"

"But aren't scribes and harpers the same--"

"Ap! Ap! No! They are not!" Ilina said, waving her long finger in the air. She was grinning though, this was obviously a long-standing item for the weyr by now. Three years, more or less.

"So when do I get to meet this amazing master scribe?" Dakis asked, as they headed around the remnants of the gather, and his alcohol buzz wore off.

"Well, probably not for some time. She's been searched as well, she's at another weyr waiting the eggs to hatch."

"W....wait." He ground to a halt. "Your master scribe, a ninteen year old girl," (Ilina interrupted with "with an eiditic memory") "who is why the harper hall won't talk to the scribners, is also searched for a dragon?"

"Yes." Ilina said with a nod, bringing her top knot again into her face, and this time Dakis grabbed at it. While Ilina protested, Dakis forced it into a more firm knot, and tucked it behind her head where it would remain the rest of the day. "Thank you. You're very handy."

"But this girl!" Dakis insisted.

"She's very pretty," Ilina said with a wink. "I expect her to come home on a gold, honestly. She's not like me and Tsuiokuth." She patted the green, who every few minutes would look back at her rider and give a trill - almost one of recognition as though she was happy to see the woman she'd impressed for the first time.

"Well... yeah, I guess, but it just seems so odd." Dakis said. "I hope that I meet her then, someday. I suppose I can't refuse a search, either, right? I wanted to go to your weyr in the first place so now I have good reason!"

***

At Dragonhope, Dakis was allowed to ask many questions that he was positive would have negative effects. The only person he steered clear of was Kira the Weyrwoman. She did still bite a bit when talking to harpers - even young ones who had been searched. Her husband the weyrleader S'xon was a little more forgiving. But the more enjoyable person to hang out with was Ilina anyway. She showed him many parts of the weyr, how they worked, and who led different crafts. He was most surprised when he learned that half the crafters also were dragon riders. One, even a bronze! The weyrleader's first son, apparently, so it ran in his blood.

Dakis wondered if he really would impress. Plus now he had to start really memorizing things. And not in a way that he'd done before! His whole method was different than a dragon rider's! They needed to visualize images - a field, the shadow of the big mountain over a valley, the way the red star hung on the background of night time sky, the weyr itself seen from over the ocean... - but he was used to remembering and recalling word after word. There were many words that came to his mind, even whole stanzas and beautiful lyrical interpretations. But ... would any of those things help him learn to memorize where to land when going between? Could he harm himself by forgetting these lessons?

Perhaps he'd wait... Maybe he should wait...

"We've found a weyr that really needs you to stand," said K'roohan, the main search rider, one day a few weeks after his arrival to the weyr. "It's called Black Sheep Weyr. It's not a terribly conventional weyr, but it has many eggs in need of candidates."

"Then... I'll get ready to stand on their sands!" Dakis said. "Hey, maybe I might impress a fine Bronze! If all I've heard about your girl Master Aniz is true, maybe she'll have a gold and we'll...." He noted the odd look on K'roo's face.

"You know, you shouldn't go cursing your Impression like that," the search rider said. "You might not impress at all, at that rate. Expect a bronze and get a green, who's more disappointed?"

"... I'm sorry? I wouldn't really - I mean I was just ..."

K'roohan burst out laughing a moment later, "boy, if you impress any dragon at all it'll be the best moment of your life, and you know it. "I just have to wonder, this place we're going, there's a kind of precident for odd things..." He explained, as they carted his material posessions onto the brown dragon, "the pair that's on the sands, they're not just Pernese."

Dakis choked, shook his head, and almost dropped the case with his gitar. "What might it be if not Pernese? I mean..."

K'roohan's eyebrow went up slowly. "Ooooh, so you've not heard of the other worlds..."

"I - what?" Dakis felt as though every time he turned around in this place, something he'd learned before walking the tables as a Journeyman Harper was going to be completely negated by some weird fact. And they were facts - he knew it. He saw it in the ranks here: there were not just white dragons, but black ones! Copper colored things! Red! And even a purple! He had only ever been taught of course that dragons come in five colors only and Thread take the rest if there might be a change in that arrangement. He'd been taught that girls ride girl dragons, and boys ride boy dragons.

But those things were obviously less true - not just 'these days' but in general. Everyone knew stories of the male green riders and the few female blue riders. But that black dragon that was here at Dragonhope? It was a male - and huge, at least the size of a bronze. And ridden by a woman who was one of the Weyrling master's assistants.

It was a good thing that Ilina was a scribe, anyway - because she had to show Dakis how to make a chart of names, ranks, and the like just to keep up with everything! Living in a weyr was harder than Dakis had thought originally. Living here at Dragonhope... might be very much harder than that!

The other worlds that K'roohan spoke of were called 'Nexus' worlds. Places reached by dragons, through between only ... farther.

And it would be to one of them that Dakis was being taken. He braced himself for a ride through the chill, he'd been between with Ilina a couple times and though it was scary the first time, the second it was just plain cold. K'roohan informed him that he'd best be set for a long ride.

He closed his eyes, when they went Between. The Nexus couldn't be any darker than between, after all, could it?

It could. There was a bitter cold unlike anything that Dakis could have dreamed. Or perhaps.... it was dreamed. There was a distinct possibility that during his stay at that gather he was struck by a runner's hoof. Maybe that's it. Maybe this entire thing, being searched and having cherry wine and talking for hours with greenrider Ilina, and being brought out here past any recognizable place in Pern.... Maybe that was a dream. A fever dream. Brain damage.

When he'd finally given up and felt as though losing his mind was the best option here, Dakis and K'roohan on Takanath came out over the evening sky of Mindspace... The weyr itself looked pretty normal.

But ... there must have been one hell of an explosion in the mountainside to have caused it to slope off like that, boom, onto the far reaching plains. The shapes of dragons flying around the weyr's bowl attracted Dakis' attention and K'roohan urged his brown to dive down to the entrance.

"Ready for another shock?" K'roohan asked, as they were landing.

Dakis gulped. What more could there be? His whole world was flip-flopping. He really needed to sit down. He realized he was still sitting down.

He got up, carefully pulled himself free of the riding harness contraption, and landed on the solid stone below. Then he sat down. "Okay, I'm ready."

K'roohan laughed loudly, and then nodded toward the pair of dragons that were watching from beyond Takanath. One was silver, the other a reddish black color. Dakis waved his fingers at them, and then brushed his hair back with them. "That's not so bad. I ... I don't have to impress one of those weird colored ones, do I?"

"If one of them comes to you, what would you do?" K'roohan asked. But more importantly, his dragon added, I hope you would love them just the same.

Well that caused Dakis to stand up. He'd hardly been spoken to by a dragon, even Ilina's was not talkative to people other than her rider. "Well I would have to!" He said, "maybe I'll be able to make some stories up here, sing them about us," he muttered while picking up his things. Since Dragonhope was hardly 'conventional', it was possible that no one here at Black Sheep Weyr knew anything about em! He knew just enough to be dangerous with stories, after all.

Or maybe he'd cross his fingers, count his blessings, and come back on a bronze like he'd really imagined...

Dakis was pretty sure that the odd dragons weren't going to come for him. After all, there were ... half a dozen people far stranger than a mere journeyman harper standing at this place's sands! Dakis found himself constantly challenging his own preconceptions. That woman over there just appeared out of nowhere, a .... man? Had fur and a tail... There were a lot of creature-people and after a while Dakis actually got to enjoy watching them. Most of them really didn't know much about his home world, either, so at long last, Dakis was able to relax and embellish a tune that he'd always thought needed a little aid.

He sang for his companions a few times, usually during and after dinners. They seemed to like his voice, his instrumentation, and all. Though he could see in their faces that his 'semi-educational' ballads were lost on their minds entirely. So he composed something specific to the dragons of his world - a little thing about the properties of golds, through greens and why there were so few others - and how maybe they compared to the ones dwelling in the eggs on the sands.

He knew there were other colors. He knew that this clutch might be way out of his experience. But now, he had a way to compare what might be, with what he'd bring home.

And Dakis knew now, he would be bringing a dragon home with him. Home - to Dragonhope! How odd that sounded just a few weeks ago! It helped him relax even more when a nest of flitters was passed around. He'd always wanted a flit, because there were times you just had to send a note and didn't have a way to do it. Well one presented itself nicely to him from a freshly broken shell!

She was a handsome, proud little thing, and gold as the morning sun light. "Sunlight!" Dakis proclaimed her and fed the hungry flit from his own plate. She soon dominated his right shoulder, where he often could see her while he played his gitar. When she sunned herself, it was like a mirror brightly reflecting light. Even if Dakis didn't come back to Dragonhope on a big dragon, this flit herself was a true find!

At last, after just a week or so of waiting, the dragons were hatching. Not all the hatchlings were of the typical colors for Pern dragons, but there weren't all that many differences between the shiny copper one and a dark bronze, nor with that blood-red one and a particularly clean washed brown...

Amongst the first to hatch was a brown dragonet, kicking his way loose of the egg that encased him. He wasn't very big, but his awkward limbs and huge paws betrayed his future size. Once he'd loosed himself of his shell, he stretched, standing as stable as he could on his four young legs. Around him, too, was an air of silence, but an easy one-- a quiet, rather than a silence, and a comfortable quiet at that. He made an inspection of the candidates from his spot beside the remnants of his eggs, looking over each one carefully. Eventually, one seemed to meet his approval, for he shook himself out a little and started ambling towards a group of boys, tripping once or twice on his own feet.

Eventually, he reached one Dakis, who was one of the only pernese candidates there. He stood in front of him for a few minutes-- long time, for a hungry dragonet-- and watched him carefully. Dakis, the brown said, speaking to only Dakis alone, Will you accept me, Ipicath, for a rider? He wasn't a bronze, but he was the biggest of this clutch, and the equivalent to one.

Dakis didn't seem particularly dissapointed at the dragonet's choice-- if anything, it was the opposite. He grinned and nodded, leading the brown off the sands. Ipicath delighted Dakis' mind and eyes both. This dragon... what he first thought was sand mottling his belly, it turned out he had darker brown on his back, and a paler shade dappling his sides and finally blending into a lovely cream belly. Everything about the male said calmness, security...

"You want to go home, Ipicath?" Dakis asked after they'd finished with the party and the requisite meeting of recordskeepers and the like.

Home is where you want to be, then I will enjoy being there too. I sense you're relieved... Why? What is relief?

"Relief is knowing that the best dragon in the world is coming with me, to our home!" Dakis laughed.

***

They reached Dragonhope Weyr without incident, once Ipicath was grown enough and strongly able to send himself between. They made it home in the middle of a storm - a big one, which the pair saw from above for just a moment, before diving headlong into the clouds.

"What! Are! You! Doing!" D'kis screeched, clinging for dear life. He hoped that none of his gear was going to come loose in this steep dive. It was only when he was able to tell that the dragon's flight had evened out a little, that D'kis opened his eyes to see the hard rain and stiff winds which were pelting the harbor below. And more than that: the bay beyond. Very distantly, D'kis heard the trumpet of the watch dragon atop the Weyr's cliff side entry, but Ipicath all but ignored it.

D'kis knew that this would make for a good ballad, if he survived... There was a small boat, capsized and with visible holes in its hull, with two people clinging on it for dear life. They would have been miserable at best even on a clear and perfect weather day, the ocean here was choppy and chill. But now? The dragon made two passes over them to make sure they knew he was coming, and then they silently came to a hovering stall over the craft.

Ipicath extended his forepaws, and once he felt the pair of fishermen clinging to them, he gently closed his arms up toward his belly and lifted off again, heading straight to the Weyr.

Why not the harbor? D'kis asked, but he already knew: because there wasn't room for a dragon in this messy storm.

Carefully landing on the topmost ledge where visiting dignitaries were brought, several attendants rushed up to bundle the fishermen in dry towels, and hustled them into the Weyr proper. D'kis dropped to the floor and took a few long and deep breaths to steady himself. Ipicath nuzzled his rider, with that warm, confident background hum always in his mind. D'kis felt better almost immediately.

He was about to get quite anxious again, when he heard the distinct and sharp voice of the Weyrwoman, Kira. But she was as disheveled as anyone else, wet from apparently having been out in this storm herself? D'kis realized he'd rather have dealt with her husband but he wasn't the one who came up to meet people.

"Oh, it's you," she said, brows furrowing a little, as she glanced between D'kis and the dragon. Then she nodded, curtly, "good. Nice work. You've got a weyr set up, we were told fit for brown, but he's pretty big, we'll see if you like it."

And that seemed to be that? D'kis fervently wished that he shared his dragon's calm and patient mind. "Will they be all right?" He blurted out, and Kira turned, glanced at the well-lit hall that led into the Weyr proper.

"I should hope so, apparently that rescue was very well timed. We've got healers if they need anything, they'll be sent home when they're ready." Kira sized him up. She was hardly up to the middle of his chest, and he was still a teenager. But boy did she pack a punch with her attitude...

A moment went by and then D'kis straightened up and gave a badly-practiced salute. This was the Weyrwoman after all...

She let off a noise, which he realized was a sarcastic snort. "I suppose you'll get used to saluting me, you'll be practicing with my wing."

***

Whoever they had watching while he and Ipicath were training back at Black Sheep Weyr, they were sneaky. Because they'd kept notes about D'kis and Ipicath, detailed enough that it was clear Kira wanted them 'near her to keep an eye on them'. What would that even mean?

First it meant that he was to report to her for any instructions about virtually any activity of that wing. He was adept with records keeping even if not in written format, and he was an exceptional communicator. Also it was clear that the spies that had followed him to and from Black Sheep had negotiated on his part - Kira was very, very well known to be more than just 'snippy'

On one hand, it meant he did have to be on his toes. On the other... it was a wing filled to the tips with amazing women (and a fair few men)! Would he flirt? Of course - because some of those ladies flirted right back! But he learned quickly, and even though he was a 'mere Harper', he was also in possession of a sound mind and a ... search dragon.

Ipicath was quite interested in some people, others not so much. Always with a good eye toward nudging them to ask about riding. Back at Black Sheep this was easier because most folks already were either Searched or part of the Weyr. But here, in Dragonhope, there were all manner of visitors and tithes to be picked up and wandering bands of traders to deal with.

Ipicath calmly and pleasantly found one after another, and Kira grew warmer toward the rider, since he was quite gifted with relaying information. Even if he had to sing it (which he did), most folks locally were still apt to listen when a Harper tuned their strings and cleared their throat! So he became a sort of Search-teacher, where there were children too young to come to the Weyr, he taught their parents how best to deal with this. Where they were lads with troubled pasts, he instructed them with cautionary tales. Girls needing to be reassured that they could be whoever they wished, instead of being 'next in line to have babies for a man', there was a song for that too.

Usually Kira would send him with the tithe collectors, and it wasn't uncommon for them to come back with one more riding than went out!

This went on for several years, as Ipicath continued to grow in size and elegance. He would always be just a touch larger than most browns, just a bit smaller than most bronzes. But he was also a very fine looking dragon, his speckled pattern delighted artists and his calm presence soothed distressed parents as their children packed up to leave.

Their weyr was snug, but not so small that the dragon had to intrude on D'kis' space. He liked it that way, apparently, Ipicath gave the distinct feeling that having a solid wall to butt up against while resting was quite nice. He wouldn't spend all his time there, of course. The brown loved to just perch somewhere and observe the humans and dragons around him, and D'kis definitely felt the same sort of 'absorbing it all' feeling when he got close. Something about this dragon, even without being Impressed to him, put D'kis at ease.

I wish to fly after a queen, I think I have learned of one that would be interested. I do not know whether she will be interested in me but I will still try.

D'kis blinked rapidly, "who wouldn't be?" The dragon gave a little chuckling rumble to that, but nothing more.

They would attend Isla shortly, and bring along one or more of the potential candidates they'd Searched over the last few months. Even if Ipicath didn't win this flight, there would certainly be eggs in need of their bond! Yriath was indeed a lovely gold, though her rider was... not... exactly Human. But with all things now, Ipicath was able to exude a calm, quiet ease. D'kis could still tell he was excited about this flight, whether he was excited enough to win, who knew!

The dragon knew good flight tricks, and would still occasionally pull one of those amazing stunts like he did when they'd first arrived to Dragonhope six years ago. Even to the point of going out during heavy rains, to patrol with some of the search and rescue teams. D'kis had special gear for those outings now too. Thankfully he wouldn't be riding his dragon for this flight.

"Quiet" Brown Ipicath (from hatching, size/other info below)

 Not quite silence-- just quiet. Quiet Brown Ipicath is not a creature of no noise at all-- though he can sometimes seem like it-- just soft noise, subtle noise, or the semblance of noise. Where absolute silence is oppressive, uncomfortable, and disturbing, Ipicath is the comfortable silence that occurs around good friends, an un-awkward quiet that no one feels the need to disturb. His is a full silence, a comforting one, with soft noises and reassurances in it.

That will be one of the leading traits that defines this dragon, actually-- Reassurance. He's a strong presence, his quiet one of intelligence and stability. Not much will faze this dragon, which might make him very good in handling emergencies-- yet he is not a being made of rock and ice. His stability is a conscious, empathetic thing-- he's more than willing to be helpful, supportive, and strong. He's a pleasant dragon, on informal and formal levels; one of those sorts who gives people a sense of having known him for years upon first meeting. Not only that, but his presence conveys a sort of comfort, a "I can tell you things and you'll listen" sort of thing. Which is true-- he will. He may not necessarily provide you with what he thinks, afterwards, but he'll listen, and that's something.

Rarely will he share his opinions on things-- likely, the only person who will ever be privy to that will be his rider, everyone else will wonder what he thinks of things and see him as something of an enigma, most likely.

He's an intelligent dragon, who will pursue knowledge at a hungry pace. It's one of his great loves, knowledge-- learning things that he didn't know before is one of his favorite things to do, other than be around his rider and spend time with said rider. Ipicath has a sense of humor, which escapes some people-- he just doesn't show it very often. Likely, though his amusement might be felt by those around him, should he project it, the only one who will hear his own remarks-- humorous or not-- will be his bond. Ipicath is a private beast-- he is quiet, after all.

This effect Ipicath has on people is not a random thing-- it's mostly a product of a very strong empathetic sense, which is perhaps strange in a brown. Should he go somewhere that has use of search dragons, he might make a good one of those-- who knows what will come of the ability.

In flights, Ipicath will prove a determined participant, though whether or not he participates at all will be an unpredictable thing.

Abilities: Teleportation*, Telepathy, Telekinesis, Assisted Firebreath; over time he has strongly developed his empathic sense, and serves as a Search dragon as well as a bit of a scout ready for emergencies; Ipicath's teleportation includes on-site betweening that spans virtually any location that D'kis can clearly visualize, but also is very strong in Nexus teleportation which takes longer but works exactly the same - places he has been or has detailed visual information about, can be reached; they tend not to mess with temporal teleportation, as D'kis has 'heard those stories'...

Physicality notes: He will be large for his colour, and the largest dragon in this clutch.

Size: medium 10'9" s / 40' l / 34' ws

Colors: body light buff tan underside, with medium caramel brown dorsal spotty markings; wingsails pale buff with a little body color near limbs; tail spade buff; horns and claws white; this dragon's lineage includes a very large number of unusual and bicolors

Features: the only significant difference with this dragon from a Pernese are his long, straight horns, which take the place of head knobs

Parentage: green Berylth (Darkling Dawn clutch 6) x Brown Linelith (SCD clutch 6) (this went farther than I ever imagined it would)