Runaway

Preface/Disclaimer: Most of the characters are original characters created by me and/or inspired by others, and everything else belongs to Anne McCaffrey for this chapter and all subsequent chapters. There is no beta so I apologize in advance for any minor errors. This story is set in an AU 10'th pass after a long interval on the western continent and therefore is not entirely canon, but is otherwise as canon as humanly possible. That being said please feel free to read and review.

Chapter 1: A Day In the Life

Ampara wondered idly how many times she could drum out the chorus to Moreta's Ride with her fingers before class ended.

1…

2…

3…

A sharp flick on her arm made her glance up annoyed. Tari was staring at her with something akin to murder in her eyes. Ampara held in an exasperated breath. Shards, the history of the western continent was so…so… boring. The only thing that anybody needed to know was that thread was back, and that the dwindling Weyr had gone back in time to bring forward dragonriders to deal with the sudden demand for able bodied weyr men and women. Ampara understood that it was tragic that lives had been lost on the jump ahead and that having dragonriders around was very important, but if she had to hear old Master Ptarlan lecture about it in that nasally voice one more time…

"Class dismissed," that was more like it.

Ampara nearly skipped outside. Freedom, finally!

She gave a big mock gusty sigh of relief as the afternoon sun washed over them. Tari smacked her in the back.

"Owww," Ampara narrowed her green eyes at Tari with a sour twist of her mouth.

"What is your problem?" though Tari didn't actually stamp her foot Ampara could have well imagined her doing so.

"My problem? What's yours? Anyone who has to hear that stuff as much we do would be close to banging their heads on their desks until blood started dripping on the floor," Ampara quipped with a macabre sort of humor.

"We're Harpers! Keepers of Pernese history and tradition, singers of songs…"

"Blah, blah, blah, you sound like my mother," Ampara cut in and was glad to hear the lunch bells peal, hoping it would drown out Tari's annoying habit of trying to make her feel guilty about stuff or…well…everything.

She felt herself jerked to the side as Tari forced her to turn around with a hand on her shoulder, "Maybe you should listen to your mother more. You're never going to get anywhere if you keep up this…this…attitude!"

"Attitude? Me? Whatever gave you that idea?" Ampara hooked her thumb on her pocket and turned to go to lunch. She didn't need this wherry-henning.

Tari stomped her foot, oh so predictably, and followed after her friend. She huffed her breath in uncontrolled exasperation. Ampara was going to ruin her chances at a decent career at this rate. She really did love Ampara like a sister. They hadn't grown up together, but Ampara had shown her the real ropes of Harper Hall and it just seemed like Ampara didn't care anymore. How could someone with such a bright future care so little? Tari's deepest fear was that Ampara was just going to disappear one day and never come back only to try and prove something to everyone else. Then who knew what could happen to her on her own. Tari's mind had conjured up all sorts of terrible visions of Ampara's self-destructive doom.

"Listen to me. We're harpers, we have a responsibility, it's our duty to…"

"We're only 16 turns each Tari, I think it's going to be a little while before we have any effect on Pern at large."

"Well if you listened to your mother more you'd probably be on a fast track to walking the tables instead of stuck as an apprentice."

"Aaargh!" where was a wall to bang a head into when she needed it?

"Ampara!" fast walking toward the dining hall worked well enough as a distraction too.

"I don't care, I don't care, I can't hear you," Ampara sing-song-ed the 'hear you' easily out distancing her friend.

Who knew those motivational talks actually inspired people? Well…inspired was a strong word. Tari just nagged her as much as her mother now. Ampara ducked into the dining hall amongst a band of other Harper apprentices and raced for a seat at the most crowded part of the table. It was to her relief that Tari was forced to sit several benches down as the hall quickly filled up. Tari pinched her hard on the arm as she passed and to Ampara's credit there were no faces or jumps as the sharp pain came and went. She had a perfectly convivial, congenial, and relaxing lunch after that. It was refreshing to talk about something else besides impressing the masters and journeymen. It might as well have been a dragon hatching from all of the talk of impressing. Yawn. Not that she had ever attended a hatching to know, but the way people waxed poetic about it she hoped it lived up to it's reputation if that day ever came where she got to leave the sharding hall.

Ampara wolfed down her lunch as quickly as was polite while contemplating how to best distract Tari from her new mission of converting Ampara to the way of the Harper. Ampara then excused herself to the main courtyard outside the dining hall. Ahead of her was the main concert hall, to her left the teaching buildings and workshops and to the right the outlying cottages; the closer and the better ones for masters and journeymen and the further and more dorm like ones for the apprentices. Around it all was a stone wall for keeping Harpers in and the rest of the world out, or so it seemed to her. Ampara took a deep breath and stretched, trying to dispel all of the annoyance she had accumulated in such a short amount of time in one day. Her irritation was about to return with a vengeance as she smoothed dark reddish auburn strands of hair behind her ears.

"Up to another prank or something else no good aren't you? You're going to ruin the rest of our reputations."

"Ah dear cousin Matíne, always a pleasure," Ampara's words were thickly coated with a biting sarcasm.

Ampara turned around with a tight lipped smile on her face and gave a mocking bow. The girl was two turns her senior, very close to walking the tables, and as arrogant as any gold dragon. It was like the enmity between siblings without actually sharing any parents. Naturally, as they got on about as well as dragons and felines, that created more tension amongst peers and family. Maybe it was just all of those tunnel snakes that kept popping up near her dear cousin. The pests just seemed to have a fatal attraction to her. It wasn't Ampara's fault… at least about one percent of the time.

Matíne tossed long, curly, light brown locks behind her shoulder and sauntered down the steps, fixing Ampara with the brown eyes that Matíne, her mother, and her uncle all shared. Ampara wouldn't have said so to anyone else, but it almost disconcerted her as much as when her mother gave her such a pointed stare.

"If you're going to stop to point out all of my flaws and tell me what an undeserving little wretch I am then you can skip it. I've had enough boring speeches for one day," Ampara had learned to feign nonchalance like an expert, and she put her skills into use.

Matíne bit her lip, no doubt holding in all of the nasty little things she'd love to say to her cousin. She just couldn't understand it either (she and Tari probably had more in common than they knew). Ampara was the golden child next in line to be a great as a protégé under her own mother, Arai. Yet, she constantly wasted her talent and threw her uncaring attitude in the faces of everyone. Matíne knew she had twice the potential and would work harder than Ampara could ever dream of if only her aunt would give her the chance. Matíne didn't really hate her cousin she just resented her, deeply.

"The only reason I'm speaking to you is because my father is back, and he said he'd like to visit with you. Though I won't pretend to understand why."

"That's okay, I don't pretend to understand you at all. I just tell people you're uglier than a watch-wher when they ask," and she was down the steps and running before Matíne could work out an angry response to the half-heard retort.

Ampara vaulted over obstacles in her path and ran through buildings with no regard for the peace of mind of others. She could have popped a cartwheel, but she at least refrained from that. Her breathless arrival at the workshop was met by some disapproving looks, but she just smiled, waved, and sidled between the rows of tables very careful not to touch anything. Despite her seeming irreverence to her craft she never did anything malicious or permanently destructive though the thought had been quite appealing at times. Even if she was the golden child of the star there was only so much the 'loveable scamp' act would allow her to get away with, and that was generally the last line of defense when her vast reserves of charm and appeal failed her.

Ampara knocked, rocking on her heels with baited breath. Uncle Tum had been away for ages this time, and she had missed him terribly. She was more than ready for a one on one with the only member of her family that actually understood her. It was with a considerably lighter spirit that she bounded into the room when she was called. Ampara had been waiting for him to come back for a long sharding time.