Disclaimer: Pern and it's Dragonriders belong to Anne McCaffrey.

This is my first try at a Dragonriders of Pern FanFic, so I hope you like it. Thanks truegold-dragonstar for your help on writing this first chapter.

These two characters come from "Ever the Twain", a short story from A Gift of Dragons. Enjoy!

Chapter One

Nian woke up and turned onto her left side to look at the golden hide of her sleeping queen. She just lay there adoring Quinth without even paying attention to the time.

When Quinth started to move restlessly, Nian got out of bed and smelled the cool mountain air of High Reaches Weyr. She realized then that K'vin wasn't in the bed anymore, which meant he and Oswith were out training their wing. So she wouldn't see him for a while.

Then she got dressed and went over to her dragon. She leaned against her dragon's side until Quinth woke up completely. Nian looked into Quinth's faceted eyes for a little while, remember their Impression, before either of them did anything.

Aren't you supposed to be in the Weyrwoman's weyr confirming your trip back to your home with your brother? Quinth asked her rider. He already did earlier but he remembers the time difference. He's just getting impatient and it's starting to annoy Larinth, so Larinth is annoying me.

"Yes I'm supposed to be, and I will after I get food, so have Larinth tell Ru that please."

N'ru says to eat quickly then, or he'll go ahead and without you.

Nian groaned. "Tell him I'll be there as soon as I can and that I say to stop using our dragons as messengers."

I told him and Larinth and I both say thanks for the messenger part. N'ru is stopping.

"That's good." Nian then lead her queen to the ledge of her weyr before mounting so that Quinth could take them both down to the Bowl. As she headed into the kitchen she said good morning to Gisela, the Headwoman, who was still frowning after having to tell a drudge off for slacking but smiled when she saw Nian. She passed Karin, the other Junior Weyrwoman, as she came down the corridor and the two of them smiled at each other. She almost bumped into two riders who were talking as then went down the hall, not paying attention to who was coming, and had to move to the side so that they wouldn't bang into her. She watched them go down the corridor for a moment, shaking her head at their carelessness.

Nian went into the kitchen to find food and it seemed like luck was on her side because M'thew, the Weyrleader, and Dalia, the Weyrwoman, were both in there standing by the food. The tall Weyrleader, with his longish dark-brown hair, was getting his food. He had a kind smile on his face that he usually wore because he might be strict but he could be extremely nice and caring too; which he usually is.

The tall Weyrwoman, red hair down just past her shoulders so that it fit into her riding helmet easily, was standing there next to him, waiting for him to finish getting his breakfast. She had a small smile on her face, which Nian looked at and took in to mean she was in a good mood. The Weyrwoman was very nice most of the time, but on a bad day, no one really wanted to deal with her.

When Nian walked up to the fire to get her food they motioned for her to join them at their table after she gets her oatmeal and klah. After she got her breakfast, she went over to the table they were sitting at and sat down to eat.

"You and your twin brother wish to go visit your family today, correct?" Dalia asked Nian. Nian looked into her hazel eyes in surprise.

"Yes, and he is having Larinth annoy Quinth to get me to hurry."

M'thew laughed quietly at that before he said, "Well then eat up and go join him quickly. We don't want an annoyed queen here in the weyr, do we now?"

Nian looked up into his smiling light-brown eyes and grinned. "Thank you." She hurried through her meal, watching M'thew tell off a Weyrling for tripping a drudge and resulting in the china being shattered, relieved that she wasn't that Weyrling. After she finished, she rushed out to her dragon, passing a few drudges with trays of more food.

"We have permission to go!" She said to her dragon excitedly when she reached her.

That is great, little one. Should I tell Larinth so that N'ru stops bothering him?

"Yes. Tell him that we'll be there shortly." Nian was still smiling because she was so happy to be able to go see her parents and younger siblings.

She closed her riding jacket and put her helmet on before she mounted Quinth again. Quinth took off from the ground and flew above the Bowl. Nian visualized Ista Weyr's Bowl and asked Quinth to take them between.

They went into the cold of between, now used to it after seven Turns of going into it. Suddenly, they burst into the warm air above Ista Weyr. It hit Nian just like going into a warm bath after being outside during the winter when it's snowing lightly. She felt very hot in her riding jacket and wanted to take it off right then, but didn't because she knew that when she went between again, she would be freezing.

They glided down towards N'ru's weyr and identified themselves to the watch dragon.

Larinth told N'ru that his sister was there and headed to his ledge, so N'ru went out to meet her on the ledge with Larinth following.

"Took you long enough." N'ru moaned at his sister while she got off Quinth.

"Hey, I had to eat breakfast you know. I know you already ate, so don't blame me. It's not my fault Ista is ahead of High Reaches."

"Okay, okay, I get it. Can we just go already? I haven't seen our family in five Turns and I know you haven't in six Turns."

"Sure, let's get going."

They both mounted their dragons. Larinth moved over to let Quinth take off first before he went. This time they went past the watch dragon, waved to his rider, and flew straight for a little. They landed by a small lake so that they could talk for a few minutes before visiting their family. They sent their dragons into the lake before sitting against some trees and on the soft grass. They just watched the two dive under water and saw the gold and bronze glittering on the surface of the water from the sunlight on their hides.

"So… how is it at Ista?" Nian asked her twin after a few minutes.

"Nothing is going on there right now; just Threadfall." N'ru replied.

"Same thing at High Reaches. Nothing new is going on anymore."

They both just watched their dragons swim in the lake for a little, enjoying the peace. Their dragons were both staying underwater as long as possible and when they came up for air, tried to aim their splashes at their riders; usually hitting them. That got both of them laughing after the first time, before they moved farther away from their dragons to give them a challenge.

Nian looked at her twin and realized that their parents might not recognize them anymore. Both had gotten a lot fitter, stronger, and taller since they had left. They still had their green eyes and black hair, even if that was a different length from before.

She let the thought go and remembered Orla and C'aum, her old friends from Lado, and Robina, the girl she had met at Ista when she had Impressed Quinth. Orla and Robina had impressed greens and C'aum a brown. Amazingly enough, all three were in N'ru's wing.

"Ru, how are Orla, C'aum, and even Robina doing?" Nian asked her twin, curious to find out how her old friends are doing.

"Orla and C'aum are really annoyed at me because they expect me to give them special treatment in my wing just because they are old friends." He said while laughing. "Robina is very good at fighting Thread on Lyrith and is a lot nicer now. I think my training snapped that old self out of her."

"That's really great to know. Please tell Orla and C'aum that I feel a little sorry for them, but not really. Being trained as a queen rider isn't as easy as it seems."

"Sure." N'ru was laughing again. "How's K'vin doing?"

"Probably killing his wing with training right now. I've heard more than one rider complaining about how hard his training is to other riders, but they have a lot of respect for him."

"That's good. Glad to hear everything is fine over at High Reaches."

"It's nice to hear the same about Ista. We really need to get together at each other's Weyr more often."

"I agree."

They watched their dragons some more, and right then their dragons were splashing each other with water. Then Larinth went underwater, grabbed Quinth's tail, and dragged her under. Nian and N'ru laughed at how Quinth was struggling. This reminded N'ru of a day back just before they had left home.

"Nian, do you remember that day back at Lado when we got to watch the dragons prepare to fly thread? There were all of those dragons waiting there for the Thread to come. You had the bronzes, browns, greens, and blues all mixed together while the queens were flying below. That sight had been absolutely beautiful.

"That was the only time we've had to visit our parents together. We had been Weyrlings and had told that when the dragons appeared above Lado, we had to go back to the Weyr so that I could lug firestone sacks around and so that you would be safe."

"Yes, I remember it very well and it was a beautiful sight. I wish we could see that sight from the ground again."

N'ru opened his mouth to say something else when both Quinth and Larinth came up at once, spraying both of them with water. Their riders stood up and started to try and dry themselves. After a few minutes when they were finally dry their dragons said, we're bored, can we go now?

Nian and N'ru both laughed before agreeing that it was time to get going. They mounted their dragons and flew up high enough to go between before their dragons got close enough to let them talk.

"Do you have the image of our home from one of the sweepriders?" Nian asked her brother.

"Shards. Nian, it's like you don't trust me. Of course I have the image."

At that moment, both remembered the conversation they had just had about the Threadfall when they had both been allowed to be late to visit their family. They remembered how the sky had looked as well as the ground with all the people staring at the amazing dragons above. They remembered how the houses had looked, the ground, where the sun had been in the sky, and all others details of that scene.

"Ready?" N'ru asked his sister.

She nodded and replied, "Ready."

They both ordered their dragons between with the image of the nine Turn old Lado Hold awaiting Threadfall in their minds.

Please Review and tell me what you think of it.