I hope you enjoyed this little flirt with the works of Anne McCaffrey - there are so many Turns for us to write about - fan fiction is a tribute to a well-loved author.
Andoya poured a cup of klah and brought it over. Vikna seemed too shocked to speak, looking from the rider to the dragon. The dragon sniffed at the smell before withdrawing its great head as another rider came in.
"What's this? Shells and shards, you kept your word then!"
He took a cup, ran his eyes appreciatively over Andoya who blushed and hurried away. She was searching for a rider in particular, for a dragon so pale bronze as to be almost golden, and saw what she was searching for, taking food and drink across.
"You - are you B'den?"
"Yes, I'm B'den, this is Simoneth my bronze. And who might you be - although - there's something about you - "
"I'm Adrenal's grand daughter," she said.
"Adrenal! Pretty little Adrenal, eh? How is my girl?"
"She - she died two Turns ago, sir, we had a very bad year."
His face showed his shock. "I - I - I should have realised everyone of my time would be dead - but only fifty Turns - "
"Smola is alive," she said quickly. "She said - she said - to tell you not to forget you're to dance together at the next gather."
He stared down at her, a tall well made man, his face suddenly sad.
"Alas, my dear Smola, it will be a gathering of the dead before I dance with you again," he murmured. "To me, it will be only sixteen more stops before I face Thread again, but everyone I held dear will be gone."
"Their descendants will be alive, sir! As will yours?"
He glanced beyond her to where Vikna was helping check buckles and harnesses.
"Yours and his as well, eh? Nice strong looking man, that one, and with gold! Well now - and there might be my blood in you, because Smola will have told you Adrenal and I sported?"
He laughed and shook his head, turned to check his harness, and Andoya hurried to pour klah and serve the dragon riders. They had lost two in the two jumps they had made, she learned, but most of the dragons were big and strong, well fed, and able to carry the burdens the dragon riders had brought with them, their possessions and their weyrmates in some cases. A woman was busy at the hearths, and Andoya walked across.
"Is it - is it - Alsten?"
The woman straightened and stared at her, wary and a little angry.
"Yes, I'm Alsten. Who wants to know?"
"Smola said your name - she said you'd come up here as cook and vanished."
Alsten's face softened.
"Smola! Oh my, but there was a girl! Did she wed the holder?"
"N- no. Adrenal did."
Alsten stared at her in puzzlement. "Adrenal? Oh, her sister! Smola would have been better, but I expect Adrenal manoeuvred her out of it. Did Smola marry?"
"Oh yes, and had three sons, all them gone out of the valley with their own families."
Alsten shook her head. "I came into this open-eyed, my girl, but it doesn't make it any easier. Now then. We'll be away in a short while, and thank you and that lad Kvaloy for the food and drink!"
"Will you - will you be back?"
"Oh yes, in twenty five Turns, following the dwindling and rising of the Red Star. Will you be here?"
Andoya glanced at Vikna who had come up to collect the empty cups, and blushed. Vikna smiled at Alsten.
"We'll be somewhere in one of these abandoned Weyrs, don't fret over that! Either this one or Fort, near my home. Together, I hope."
Alsten laughed out loud.
"I hope you are, my dears, and I'll remember you always, in that future we rush towards to save this world of ours! Now - give me a kiss, Smola's kin, and let me go."
Andoya kissed her, and stood back, and B'den came up behind her.
"Here," he said softly, holding out a gold locket. "Take this and give it to Smola. And give her this kiss from me, and tell her I'll look out her descendants in that far future, maybe take back my locket, eh?"
He kissed her on the cheek, saluted Vikna, embraced Kvaloya.
"Until the next time, brave one, if you are spared that long! Are you ready, Simoneth?"
The pale bronze dragon rumbled deep in his throat, lowered his head and touched briefly at Kvaloya, and B'den climbed to his back, and fitted on the fighting straps.
The three stood back, watching, and with a fierce upward hand signal, the Weyrleader and his mate took off, and winked out of sight, and the other dragons and their riders followed into the darkness, leaving the swirl of an unearthly cold behind them.
Andoya clutched the locket and Vikna ran an arm over her shoulders, blotting her tears.
"Come along, m'dear, let's get you back to bed before that ugly brute of a father of yours finds out about this little escapade! Are you fit to finish here, madman?"
"Yes. Thanks. For being here - "
"Give over, man, it was a privilege to be here! Something to treasure all my days, not to be spoken about, but known, eh, to us?"
Andoya nodded, cleared her throat and sang the song that had been new fifty Turns ago, and quickly added to the compulsory teaching ballads.
"Gone away, gone ahead,
Echoes roll unanswered.
Empty, open, dusty, dead.
Why have all the weyrfolk fled?
Where have dragons gone together?
Leaving Weyrs to wind and weather?
Setting herd-beasts free of tether?
Gone, our safeguards, gone but whither?
Have they flown to some new Weyr
When cruel Threads some others fear?
Are they worlds away from here?
Why, oh, why, the empty Weyr ?"