This is just a fun Pern story that doesn't need to be in a particular Pass!

Sarla stepped cautiously down the hallway, her hand on the cover of the glow basket. If Dralina caught her sneaking off with a perfectly good glow she'd raise welts; she couldn't abide waste. Sarla sighed; she tried hard to please her foster mother, but she hated sitting still and sewing. Who wanted to make quilts when there was a maze of unused tunnels in the back of the Hold? She had so little free time, between lessons and chores, but she always tried to get done early so she could go exploring. Today was going well; Harper Tristio had let the children out early so he could talk to the runner who had come in with a message. She would have nearly two hours before anyone would start looking for her.

Sarla smiled as she turned the corner, and opened up the glow; she was out of sight now. She walked quickly past the two tunnels she had thoroughly explored, and turned down the next one. It was not much longer than the first tunnel had been; the second one had been long, with many chambers to explore. This one looked like it was blocked by a rock fall. Sarla grimaced; she hated to have to turn back before she'd seen anything new. She kept walking. Maybe she could get past the rocks. She tried shifting a few, but that only made more rocks slide down the pile. She climbed up on one of the larger ones to try to see over the top, but there wasn't any gap she could squeeze through. She sat down, pouting a little; she had been looking forward to this trip, but it wasn't working out!

As she set the glow basket down on the rock next to her, the shifting light chased away all the shadows except one. Sarla looked again, startled: it wasn't a shadow, it was an opening in the wall! She scrambled down to investigate. The opening led to a tunnel longer than the light from the glow could reach. Sarla grinned in anticipation.

The tunnel wasn't quite tall enough to stand up in, which was strange; she had been able to walk easily through all the others she had explored. Why wouldn't they have finished the tunnel, she wondered as she crawled on her hands and knees, shoving the glow ahead of her. Her patience was finally rewarded: the tunnel widened out into a small chamber, not much bigger than her sleeping room. She held out the glow as she knelt in the entrance.

"Hello..."

Sarla gasped and tried to scramble to her feet. Her head cracked into the stone ceiling of the tunnel, and she collapsed.

"Sarla?" Dralina knocked on the door of her foster daughter's sleeping room. No one answered. "Sarla, are you in there? Are you ready to leave? The dragonrider will be here any minute. You don't want to disappoint your father!" She knocked again. "Sarla! Answer me!" There was no response. Dralina sighed and opened the door. "Sarla – !" She blinked in surprise; there was no one in the room. She stood there a moment, thinking, and her eyes lit upon the empty glow rack above the bed. "Not again!"

Sarla couldn't think where she was. She opened her eyes to a dim, flickering light. Her head hurt. "Oh!" She sat upright. She was still in the back room; the light came from the glow, which had partially spilled onto the floor when she dropped it. She hurriedly began scooping it back into the basket, heedless of the bits that clung to her hands and spilled onto her tunic, when a noise behind her made her jump and spill it again. Annoyed, she turned around to berate whoever had startled her, then gasped in surprise.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. Are you all right?" The little boy looked anxiously up at her. "You were asleep for a long time."

Sarla was staring at him. She had never seen this boy in her life, and she knew everyone in the Hold. "I – I'm all right, I think," she said slowly. "I'm Sarla. Who are you?"

"My name is Tabiollo, but everyone calls me Tabby," he said shyly. "I'm five. I've never seen you before. Are you here to visit?"

"No…" Sarla couldn't stop staring. The boy's clothes looked strange somehow… it was hard to see them in the dim light from the spilled glow. She started gathering up the spillage again, sneaking looks at him. "I'm nine, and I've lived here since I was three. I've never seen you either. Who is your mother?"

The boy's face seemed to crumple up. "I don't have a mother. She got sick, and then she went away."

"Sudina?"

"Yes, Dralina?" The headwoman of Telgar Hold, Sudina was always busy, but she was easy to talk to. She turned around to face Dralina, who looked both irritated and worried.

"Sudina, I can't find Sarla. I think she's gone off into the back tunnels again; the glow was missing from her room."
Sudina sighed. "Dralina, Tristio let the children out early today. She's entitled to some free time. She always comes back in time to do her chores, doesn't she?"

"Yes, but it's been nearly two hours since anyone saw her. She's supposed to go to the Weyr today to visit her father; she wouldn't forget that!"

"She probably lost track of time back there… no one knows where she went?"

"No one saw her leave…" Dralina hesitated. "Sudina, could you send your fire lizards to look for her? She likes them…"

"Yes, she's been a big help with them. Maybe they'll be able to sense where she is." Sudina concentrated for a moment, then looked up to see her fire lizards zip through the doorway. They knew to stay out of the kitchen unless invited. She held out her hands; bronze Tooli settled on her right shoulder, and blue Frinzie on her left forearm. They chirped inquiringly at her, and she smiled. "All right, fellows, I have a job for you!" They chittered excitedly, anticipating the treats she always gave them when they performed a task correctly. Sudina knew they were smarter than most of the people in the Hold were aware. She pictured Sarla in her mind and heard the fire lizards acknowledge the image; they liked Sarla. She gave them treats too. "Find Sarla! Show me where she is!" They chittered at her and went between.

Sarla was immediately sympathetic. She had heard that a lot of people in one of the cotholds had died of a fever recently. "It's all right, Ta – Tabby," she said comfortingly. "My mother's gone, too. She died when I was a baby. My father is still alive, but he's a dragonrider… he couldn't take care of me so he sent me here. I don't see him very much - oh!"

"What's wrong?" Tabby said in alarm. "What is it, Sarla?"

"Oh, I can't believe I forgot! I was supposed to visit my father today! I must be late by now - I've got to go!" Sarla jumped to her feet, careful not to spill the glow for a third time.

"Oh! What's that?" Tabby exclaimed as the two fire lizards flew in through the tunnel. They hovered around Sarla's head, scolding, then noticed Tabby. Squeaking in surprise, they winked out of sight. "Oh!"

"They're Sudina's fire lizards… she must have sent them to find me. I've got to go, Tabby – you'd better come with me. You shouldn't be back here all by yourself. You could get hurt in a rockslide or something…"

"I think I did."

"What do you mean? Are you hurt?" Sarla raised the glow, trying to get a better look, but the light didn't seem to help.

"No…" He seemed uncertain. "It was a long time ago."

"Sarla!" They both jumped as they heard the voice calling down the tunnel.

"That's my foster mother, Dralina. I need to go now. Come on, Tabby." She turned to start the crawl back through the narrow tunnel, but couldn't hear him following. She sighed in exasperation. "Are you coming or not?" She turned back around to glare at him and almost dropped the glow again. There was no one else in the room.