Author's Note

I do not own the Dragonriders of Pern.

The Weyr was insane.

Everyone here was insane.

Heck, this entire planet must be insane!

That was the only explanation Lily could think of.

Between the Thread, as they called it, the dragons, the firelizards, and the outright superpowers, this place was most certainly insane.

The only good thing about this place was Luna.

Okay, so sanity wise she was also insane.

And one of those people with the aforementioned superpowers.

At least, that was what her eerie comments and half-predictions appeared to be. Too many of them were true or had truth in them for it to be a coincidence. She knew things about people and occurances, and those slightly spooky over-large eyes of hers had a tendency of seeming to look straight through people, reading what they had in their hearts and minds.

It was like real life telepathy.

Which Lily knew actually existed here and was one of the less weird things she had actually come across.

Still, despite her unsettling ability to read people and predict events, she was the best thing in Lily's life right now.

She was a good kid, she just had absolutely zero socialisation skills. It was like she'd been brought up with no exposure to anyone else. Ever. She seemed to have no idea when not to tell them something unsettling. Lily was currently working on teaching her, well, not to do that, but it had only been a few weeks. She considered it a success when Luna could identify that she was being weird.

Again.

But it was more than that.

She was like the little sister Lily had always wished for and never had. It was like there was an immediate connection from the moment Lily pulled her out of that river (and she sometimes wondered exactly what that weird telepathic ability allowed her to do). She was sometimes annoying, sometimes unbearable, sometimes mature beyond her years, and sometimes a sweet kid.

Lily felt like she'd known her forever.

She could remember the first things she said to her, and their conversation as they wandered lost through those woods.

She couldn't even remember the last thing she said to her parents.

Sometimes Lily considered asking one of the riders whether they could try betweening her back home (was betweening considered the verb? She didn't know), but she knew there was some sort of limit on how long they could go between for and had decided Earth was too far away. If she managed to Impress (that was the word they used for it) her own dragon (her own dragon, those words were insane), perhaps they could try betweening (she was certain that was not the word) back themselves.

If she even wanted to by that point.

If she even could.

If her home even existed.

From what Lily had seen and pieced together, this wasn't just some weird fantasy world with the dragons and the firelizards and the weird bird things but some sort of different planet in a universe where there was an Earth. Whether it was her Earth was a different matter altogether. After all, in her universe there was certainly no such thing as real actual telepathy, or superpowers, or- whatever it was Dorasa and Yariel were.

So that could mean she was in a different universe altogether.

Or maybe she never had been in what she remembered as hers in the first place.

It was beginning to feel like this was the real world and everything up until waking up in those woods, her entire life on Earth, was all a dream.

Even her parents' faces in her memories were beginning to get blurry.

Lily was beginning to wonder whether she was actually in a similar situation to Yornam, having forgotten everything about her past and just made up what she remembered about Earth.

She could be the mad one.

"Lily? Hey, Pern to Lily," Kimberlee called, waving her hand in front of her face. Lily batted her away. Whitey chirped in alarm and fluttered up from her shoulder where he/she/it (Lily hadn't quite worked out her firelizard's gender yet) had been napping.

"What?"

"We're going up to the caverns to wait for the Touching. Come on."

Lily nodded and numbly got to her feet, rolling her shoulders. It felt like she'd gotten no sleep at all last night, having dreams where her parents' faces merged with those of strangers who owned some sort of small farm and had like two dozen children.

Lily had still got no attention.

At least here she had Luna, and the others that she had become friends with.

Sometimes Lily wondered why she would ever think about wanting to leave.

Back home – back where she thought was home – she had no friends and her parents were never there. She was even alone at Christmas. They had both worked Christmas while Lily stayed home alone and watched corny movies.

Sure, here was hard work, and she didn't know all the rules, and Dorasa and Yariel kept killing people, and some letters were drawn differently so she felt like an idiot who couldn't read, and there was the all-devouring Thread, but-

But she had friends here.

A family.

She didn't have that back home.

Whitey fluttered back down to land neatly on her shoulder again, wrapping its (?) tail around her neck.

Lily smiled and walked over to where Luna was gazing into the flames of the flickering fireplace. "Come on. Time for the Touching."

"Time is ever moving, it can never be still."

"I know, I know, you keep telling me." Lily took her wrist and pulled her after the others before they got left too far behind. She was still learning her way around here.

Like the past two times, the Weyrwoman came to show them onto the sands, though there were a few others with her today as well. One Lily recognised as being her husband/partner, Sirena's father, but the other two were women, too old to be candidates.

"This will be the last time you see the eggs before Hatching now. There will be absolutely no fighting, arguing or disagreements of any kind while you are on the sands. If you are standing for Gold, please follow me."

Lily wasn't really sure whether she was suitable for Gold. She didn't know the simplest things about this world or the Weyr: how was she supposed to run one?

But the other colours were beautiful too. Greens were female, and Lily had seen female green riders. According to Sirena, there were also three female blue riders as well, so obviously girls could impress blue.

She didn't have to only hope for gold.

Nareth growled and rumbled at the candidates as they filtered out onto the sands, though there were no temper theatrics like the last time. Instead, she hunched possessively over the three Queen eggs until Jalenna forced her to allow them to approach. Lily gazed at the two huge golden eggs and the one smaller one, one of the smallest in the clutch. Could she perhaps even impress the smallest one, so small that it would be unlikely she would be given so much responsibility?

She stroked the shell gently. Rasia was focused on that egg too, humming softly as she stroked it.

Luna touched the Queen eggs, but she didn't seem all that interested, more focused on the small eggs shoved over near the wall. Sirena appeared to be much the same way and Lily saw her mother frown slightly when she moved away from the Queen eggs after only thirty seconds, apparently disinterested.

Many of the others, namely Jakeiria, Baliose, and Tulliyoh were entirely the opposite. They spent as long as they possibily could at each of the bigger eggs, touching and stroking them possessively until the Weyrwoman requested they move along.

Lily had decided very early on that they were like the spoilt rotten rich girls from her school of Pern.

When the Weyrwoman told them the time for viewing the Queen eggs was over and the boys were being allowed in, Jakeiria, Baliose and Tulliyoh were the only ones to leave.

Luna and Sirena made a beeline straight for the small eggs at the edge of the sands. Lily drifted across the sands. Even after the last two touchings and R'ton's lessons, she was a little unsure as to what she was meant to be doing. She brushed her hands over the shells of the eggs. They felt harder now, like a hard, rough kind of shell instead of the weird, leathery texture they had before.

Lily closed her eyes and tried to decide whether she could feel anything, but she wasn't sure what she was meant to be feeling. Instead she paused to stroke one of the smaller eggs for a moment. According to the boys the bigger eggs were most likely to be the higher colours: bronzes, browns and maybe the odd bigger blue. The smaller ones would be the lesser colours, greens, blues, and maybe the odd smaller brown. Lily moved on to the next smaller egg, trying to conjure up friendly and happy emotions. Whitey trilled at the happiness.

Some of the other candidates had laid 'claim' to certain eggs. The creepy twins had chosen that massive egg, Sirena and Luna liked the smaller ones, and Dralyoco was indecisive between the twins' egg and the other biggest egg in the clutch. Yornam had chosen one with a slightly odd looking shell, several of her many firelizards fluttering around her. Lily wondered whether attaching herself to one egg would give her a better chance and spent longer at the next smaller egg she stopped by, stroking the shell and thinking of love and friendship.

From what she had learnt a dragon was a partner and a friend for life. If she impressed she would never be alone or lonely again. Whitey chirped softly. Lily clicked her tongue at he/she/it. Whitey hopped from her shoulder and perched on the egg.

"You like that one, huh?"

Whitey chirped again. Lily smiled and stroked the shell of the egg.

The Weyr was insane.

Everyone here was insane.

Heck, this entire planet must be insane!

But she couldn't think of one reason why she would ever want to go home.