The Black Dragon
Chapter 1 – Introduction
Jayen woke from a particularly troubling dream with a start. At first as she lay there, not moving a muscle, she began to open her senses to the world around her. Her nose found the odours of wet leaves, tinged with the slightly sour smell of rotting vegetation. Hers fingers could feel dead leaves and mud beneath her prone form. The only sound she could hear was the babbling of a nearby brook as the water ran over the stones lying on its bed. Slowly she opened her eyes the tiniest of cracks, peering out through her thick, dark brown lashes she could she a clear sky above her, framed by the leafy green trees that surrounded the clearing, only the red tinge of the rouge planet in the east, colouring the blue expanse.
As Jayen began to slip from the sleep induced haze and into a state of real awareness, the memories from the past few days began to come back to her. After her initial flight from the mines, she had made a slow but definite progress to the east, following the only thing that she could be sure of. The baleful red star had guided her footsteps over mountain and valley she had followed its glow.
The bruises and scrapes that she had earned during her flight were once again beginning to throb and sting.
"What I wouldn't give for a pot of numb weed now" she announced to the world at large. She began to rise then as she felt the early morning dew beginning to seep through the rather threadbare fur she had wrapped herself in the previous night. Gathering her meagre possessions together she once again resumed her journey towards the red star.
In the far north of the continent J'son was also waking from his slumber. High Reaches Weyr was still cold even in the late spring months. He threw off the mountain of furs and dived for his bathing room at full pelt. Diving into the pool he allowed himself to wallow in the warm water for a few moments. He had been very lucky to get a weyr with its own bathing room, the deciding factor had been when his bronze dragon, Chironth had outgrown yet another of the smaller weyr's meaning that he'd had to be housed with the fully grown bronzes even though his Chironth was still a full turn from maturity. The only bronze that was bigger than Chironth in the whole of Pern was Benden's Weyrleader, F'lar's bronze Mementh, and there was still a good chance that Chironth would outgrow even that legendary beast.
J'son grabbed a handful of soap sand from a pot next to the pool and began vigorously scrubbing his short, black hair, before starting on the rest of his body. Chironth was not the only one to grow over the last turn. J'son had entered the weyr fifteen months earlier as a candidate for the senior queen's second clutch. Even then he had been tall, easily topping six and a half feet, and being as lanky as a bean pole, you could make out every bone on his frame. Almost a head taller then any other teen standing on the hatching ground, he was not the only one surprised when the first egg to hatch was a large bronze that decisively made his was straight towards the gangly youth.
Since impression was made, the turn of caring for his dragon and lugging firestone on weyrling duty had put a fair bit of muscle on his frame, and there were few in high reaches that would have refused him, should he have chosen them to be his bed partner. J'son still viewed himself as that gangly youth and had yet to accept any of the offers from both the female and male populations of the weyr. He was certain though that it would be a woman who would end up in his bed as he was definitely not interested in the men.
Jumping from the pool, he quickly dried himself and pulled on some riding pants, a thin tunic tied with a leather belt and a thick flying jacket. Planting his feet firmly in his fur lined boots he ran a firm hand through his hair to remove any excess moisture before grabbing his gloves and making his way to the outer weyr. Chironth was still sleeping peacefully and J'son spent a rare moment admiring the massive bulk of a dragon before finally waking him with a touch of his mind.