Chapter 8
Commander Lexa, Clarke, Adara, Kane, Raven and Murphy were having a meeting. Raven, Murphy and Adara's dragons were sleeping and the fire-lizards were too, curled up in the arms of their people.
"We need to talk about what's going to happen when we go home," said Adara, starting off the proceedings.
"In what way?" asked Kane.
"Well, we," she said, pointing to Murphy, Raven and herself, "can't really return to Connor Town. We need to learn to take care of our dragons and we can't do that if everyone is scattered all over the place. We need a central area dedicated to them."
"Does this mean you're not our leader any more?" asked Raven.
"I don't think I can be the Skaikru leader anymore, but if you want me to be the... Dragonkru... leader, I'll take it. This also means that those Arkers who are still wary of my leadership may try to revert to Ark ways. I don't want that. I don't want the kids to be sidelined and ignored again. We've proved that we can do things and we're not stupid. I've also decided that any of the hundred that want to join Dragonkru, can as well as those adults who have a child among us 100." Kane looked up sharply.
"Who will be the new leader of Skaikru?" he asked.
"You. If you want to be with us, then I'll put Tim Bartlett in charge. If he and the other of the hundred want to join us, then I don't know. What I do know is that I do not want the Ark ways to reassert themselves and the adults to revert to their scared-of-anything-different ways."
"If we all decide to go with you to this… Dragonkru, then there will have to be an election to decide the new leader," said Kane.
"I know and that's what I'm scared about. There are still some people who are too much like Pike for my tastes. They've buckled down and worked hard, so I can't just exile them, but I've also heard the grumbling they are doing."
"What grumblings?" Clarke asked.
"It's more complaining about having to do so much work. Not sure what they thought would happen on the ground, because no matter where you are, there's ALWAYS work to do."
"Yeah," said Murphy. "I've heard them talking, too. The biggest complainer there, seems to think that once they were on the ground, all they had to do was pick fruit off a tree to survive! These people are stupid and dangerous with that thinking, but I can see them having other people do their work and them lying back relaxing if they get in charge." Murphy and Raven both snorted at the thought.
"Exactly what I'm scared of," said Adara, stroking her blue fire-lizard.
"Well, we can't do anything about it at the moment. Maybe when we're taken home, you can go to Connor Town and explain things. Maybe if you tell the rest of the hundred that they are needed there, they can take over if necessary," said Clarke.
"I don't think that would work," said Adara, with a grimace. "Can you really see those same people accepting anyone I appoint in my stead? What if they see the dragons and fire-lizards and try to kill them? No, I think we'll have a problem with them no matter what we do."
"If the Skaikru start to make moves against the Trikru or other clans, then we will have to retaliate," said the Commander.
"I know. Those Arkers do not realise that their lives are in YOUR hands. I think they may test you. We cannot be involved with that though, Commander. Our dragons are too important to us." Lexa nodded.
"I will leave you out of it. In fact, I can give you special dispensation to not be exactly like the rest of the clans. You will not be expected to fight, but once your dragons are able to fly and you've mastered moving around the area, I would like you to visit each clan. I want as many clans to have dragonriders in your Dragonkru as we can get. That way no-one would want to attack you as they'd be attacking their own people."
"Well, if we do that, then we can't really be another clan. We'd need to be an independent… tribe, for the lack of a better word, under your protection. Maybe part of the Kongeda, maybe not. We will swear fealty to you if needed, but we won't fight for you. Our tribe has to be kept out of the machinations of the other clans." Adara stated. "In fact, I think we may need to have a non-aggression pact with the Kongeda." Again, Lexa nodded.
"I will consult with people about it."
"Not Titus!" said Clarke, with fervour.
"No, he will not be one of those I consult. He is too set in the old ways to realise what I'm trying to do with the Kongeda."
"He makes one move in your direction and I'll kill him myself!" Clarke declared. Fargo woke up and screeched his displeasure at whoever upset his person. "Shh, little one, I'm sorry I upset you and woke you up. I'm not upset, Fargo, I just don't like Titus. When you meet him, you'll see why," she cooed to him, soothing him back to sleep. Once he was snoring once more, Clarke continued.
"Need to remember to keep my emotions in check when I think about certain people." Murphy grunted in agreement.
"Imagine what could have happened if we had these beauties on the Ark? We'd know about the treachery much earlier," said Raven.
"They'd have killed our new friends, Raven. Shumway would have taken pleasure in it," Adara said, softly. Raven looked startled as she realised Adara was right.
"Well, shit!" she exclaimed. "Glad we didn't have them up there if that's the reaction we'd get!"
"We may get that reaction anyway with the population of Connor Town who are still scared of the ground."
"Maybe we can give them the choice of behaving and getting on with the clans or exile," said Murphy.
"There are a couple of them I'd like to exile," said Anya, thinking of the time she visited Connor Town and was told to go back to the barbarian town she came from as they didn't want their savage ways in Connor Town. Adara had heard and given the speakers and followers some really horrible jobs to do. Next time she went there, they kept their mouths shut, but she knew they would be biding their time to strike.
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Adara was relaxing with a drawing pad and trying to draw her dragon. Only thing was she was drawing the INSIDE of the dragon. She was trying to draw the musculature and bones of her shoulder joint, along with the ligaments and tendons. She was having trouble getting the joint correctly aligned with the wing because her dragon was asleep, curled up with her wings close to her body. She stopped drawing and looked around. She saw Cralleth sitting basking in the sun. She walked over to him and asked him if she could draw his wing joint. Cralleth agreed - as long as he could still sunbathe. Adara agreed and sat down and turned to a clean page and began. This time, she got the joint right and she was happy with the result. She marked the drawing with 'Cralleth's right shoulder wing.'
She moved on while she had a semi-captive model and went on to his wing joints and sails. She also drew his neck and ridges, labelling them appropriately. It was while she was drawing his front left leg and foot that the Benden healer came over to see what she was doing. He was amazed that she had drawn the inside of a dragon - without actually seeing it. No-one had been able to accurately draw the inside of a dragon. With drawings like these, they could be better at treating dragons! He wanted to know if she could do more drawings, but she said she wouldn't have much time, with a dragon and two fire-lizards, but she would draw when she had time. He seemed disappointed, but he accepted that new dragonriders didn't have much time, so he agreed, asked if he could copy them, and when Adara said yes, he hurried off to show the weyrleaders.
When they saw them, the weyrleaders realised what a healing tool they could be. They were hurriedly sent to the printer hall for immediate copying. They had one hundred copies of each drawing made and then the originals were handed back to Adara, with grateful thanks from all the dragon riders in Benden. Adara was a bit taken aback about the drawings, but she was aware that no-one else could see under the skin. She took the praise with a touch of reluctance as Adara never wanted to be the centre of attention, but since she was the leader of the Skaikru, she had gotten more used to it. She would never be comfortable in the limelight, but she was getting better.
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It took more than three days to get everything together, so the Earth people were sent back with a weyrlingmaster who had retired two turns (years) before, but was finding himself restless. He had agreed to go and help them out. The nine Benden riders that wanted to go were sent along with another ten riders from other weyrs whose dragons were unable to fly thread, but could still fly for short periods. Twenty weyrfolk from around Pern also volunteered and were sent off with them. They also loaded up dragons with twenty barrels of oil and three of numbweed and two of fellis. Two healers went with them. All in all, there were nearly sixty dragons loaded for the trip to Earth, with only twenty of them staying on Earth.
Everyone was waved off by the Weyrleaders of Pern, Masters Sebell and Menolly with Master Fandarel and Piemur by their side. Piemur and Jancis were going to go to Earth as well but later as Jancis had just started a project she got from AIVAS and she wanted to finish it first. They agreed to go when she was finished as they would take their children with them.
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They popped into Earth high in the sky above White Oak. By the time they reached the ground, those who had been left behind were there to greet them. They were shocked to see baby dragons on the backs of bigger dragons. They had another shock when they saw the fire-lizards on the arms of some of the Skaikru. A third shock overtook them when the other weyrfolk and helpers arrived. The shock was complete when Adara informed them that the dragons were staying and a new settlement was to be established here until somewhere more appropriate was found. Josh and Mac looked at the dragons and wished they had one. Adara consoled them that in a couple of years - or whenever the golds rose to mate - more eggs would be clutched (laid) and they would have a chance to impress one.
Inkalith and Adara along with Kane and Hugo went to Connor Town to talk to the people there. There was a bit of panic when a huge dragon was spotted heading towards them, but when the dragon landed outside of the town and they saw who was on it, they seemed to calm down a little bit. Abby led a small contingent out to them and watched as Adara and Kane got down. Inkalith was also lowered to the ground so she could spread her wings and stretch. Both dragons then sunbathed in the beautiful summer sun. Adara with her two fire-lizards and Kane with his, walked to meet the welcoming party.
"Hello, Abby," said Kane.
"Hello, Kane, Adara. Who are your friends?" Kane smiled widely.
"This is my bronze fire-lizard, Hugo."
"And these are my two. The blue is called Saxon, and the brown is called Lakota. The small golden dragon is called Inkalith and I am her rider."
"Rider?" asked Abby, startled.
"Yep. We were visited by a dragonrider from a world called Pern. On that world, dragons are the saviours of mankind. Without them, their world would have been destroyed millenia ago. This is N'ton, one of the Weyrleaders of Pern and the rider of bronze Lioth. He is one of a handful of people who are in charge of the weyrs where dragons live. He is a very important person, so please make sure that everyone shows him respect."
Abby stared at him and then held out her hand to him.
"Welcome to Earth," she said, shaking his hand but still shocked at the dragons.
"Thank you…?"
"Abby Griffin, I'm the head doctor."
"She's basically Master Oldive for us," Adara explained Abby's status. "Master Oldive is the highest person in the healer community in their entire world," Adara explained to Abby. She nodded.
"This is my council until Adara takes charge again," she said, waving her arm towards the people with her. "Tim, Del, Deeks and Tomika. The other members are still inside."
"About that. Kane will be in charge now. We are starting a new community for the dragons and their riders and anyone who wants to be a part of that, can come to us. We haven't gotten it set up yet, so I would rather people stay here for now, but those of us who now have dragons will be staying at White Oak until we find a suitable place to make a permanent settlement."
"How many?"
"Most of us that went there," Adara admitted. "We were only supposed to watch the hatching, but it seems that the two gold dragons who had clutched them had decided that we were the new riders for their offspring. There are two golds with Jill getting the other one, and then 6 each of bronze, brown, and green and seven blues."
"27 dragons!"
"And eleven fire-lizards," Kane said. "We'll have to hunt for them until they can hunt for themselves."
"And how much do they eat?" asked Abby, folding her arms in front of her.
"Not as much as you think they do. A full grown rabbit will do for one meal. At the moment, with how young they are, they need to eat twice a day. When they get bigger, they'll need more but only once a day. They can then catch their own." N'ton spoke up.
"We've got a small barrel of oil for you to use. Jake will also use it when he comes back with his fire-lizard."
"Jake? Jake's got one of the creatures, too?" Abby almost shrieked.
"All the one's who didn't impress a dragon, have a fire-lizard, Abby," Adara said. "Most of them had expressed a desire to stay with the dragons, including Charlotte, Hannah Green and Frank Gibson."
"So who's coming back with one?"
"Just me and Jake."
"What about Clarke?"
"She and the Commander have their own fire-lizards. Clarke has a bronze and the Commander has a gold."
"What about the others?"
Maya and Saben also have fire-lizards, while Jasper got a blue dragon."
"Who are Maya and Saben?" Del asked.
"Maya used to live in Mount Weather and now lives on Corda - an island in the Carribean, Saben is Trikru. Several Trikru are now dragon riders too. The Commander is okay with that."
"Once the dragons mate and clutch, we will be searching for likely riders among all the clans that consent to searches. Boys and girls between 14 and 20 will be the ones the dragons will look for. Not everyone will be searched and no-one searched will be taken if they don't want to go. It is up to the one searched and not the parents who decide that," Adara explained.
"Fire-lizards too, will be clutching within a year and those eggs when found, will be given to people to bond with. If they follow the instructions on how to bond with them, then they will have a friend for life."
"How many?"
"We don't know. Each clutch is different. It also depends on where the golds clutch," said N'ton.
"So we could be overrun with them?"
"No. Abby, it doesn't work like that. No-one is forced to impress a dragon and no-one is forced to bond with a fire-lizard."
"What do they do?"
"They give us unconditional love and protection. They are used to protect the area and are often seen driving off snakes on their world. They can also sense emotions so any negative emotions will make them angry. If they even think someone is thinking bad thoughts in the direction of their person, they are liable to hiss at them. They are very good at picking out people with bad intentions."
"So they stay?"
"Yes, they stay. I'm telling you, Abby, once you get to know Jake's, you'll be wanting one for yourself," said Kane, clearly enamoured with Hugo.
"So, what now?"
"Now, I officially take leadership back from you and give it to Kane. I've put a proviso in place too. Kane will be the undisputed leader for the next five years, after that there will be a vote to choose who will be the next Heda. No more Chancellor, Abby. That title means nothing to those of us who were thrown away to be murdered by our own Chancellor. The clans call their leaders Heda, so that title will be ours as well. Heda Kane or Heda Marcus is his choice, but he will be the leader. You will still be in the Kongeda and part of the twelve clans led by the Commander. That is not optional! I will not leave this clan in the hands of people who want to act like Jaha did. No more being scared of other people just because they are different to you. No more acting like you have the right to do what you want. No more thinking you are better or superior to the clans because you have more advanced technology than them. They will anhililate you if you break any of these."
"Is that a threat?" asked Abby, hands by her side, indignantly.
"No. A promise," Adara said. "You will integrate with the clans or you'll be exiled. This is the only way the clans will leave you alone."
"Sounds like a threat," Abby insisted.
"Abby, you can take it as you like, but Jake and Clarke have already agreed that this is how Skaikru will be run. Clarke is still Skaikru and so is Jake. Both of them will back Kane as leader." Abby looked at each of them.
"And the dragons? Will we have to watch out for them?"
"We will care for our dragons, but once we can fly them, we will be flying all over the place to know what is where. That means that we will be flying overhead, but if we land, we will be landing outside your Town boundaries. We will be another tribe and not Skaikru. We have our dragons to look after and cannot get involved with the politics of the Kongeda."
"Will you still be a part of it?"
"Commander Lexa is thinking about that. We have talked about it and we have avenues to pursue, but no direction has been set yet."
"Then you'd better come in and we'll hand over power." Adara nodded and Adara, Kane, N'ton and Inkalith all walked into Connor Town.
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All activity stopped as everyone stared at the three fire-lizards and then their eyebrows shot up at the sight of Inkalith walking through the gates. They crowded around as Kane, Abby and Adara moved to the stage.
"Hello everyone. I'm back with Kane and we've got a story to tell. I'll let Kane explain it later, but now," Adara turned to Abby. "I formally relieve you of temporary leadership of the Skaikru."
"I stand relieved," said Abby, just as formally.
"Good, now does anyone have a problem with me being in charge again?" she asked of the crowd. They all looked at each other, but no-one spoke up.
"I take it by your silence that you're fine with it?" Again, no-one spoke.
"I'm taking that as a yes. Now, I'm going to be busy with my dragon," Adara told them, pointing to her dragon. "So I now appoint Kane to be the new leader of the Skaikru. He will be in charge for the next five years. After that, there will be a vote to decide the next Heda. If anyone has other ideas, and tries to take over, the clans will come here and there will be trouble. Skaikru are still part of the Kongeda and you will get along with the clans. This is the way it will be, people. Make no mistake about that. I will not allow what we've built to be torn down by hatred and bigotry. If you want that, then you'll be exiled to Bermuda or another island."
"If you're no longer Skaikru, you have no say on how things will be!" shouted a voice at the back. Adara couldn't see who said it, though.
"Yes I do!" she yelled. "It was a condition that the Commander was satisfied with to allow the Skaikru to remain. You will be left alone to grow as you want as long as you abide by the Commander's rules and do not attempt to disrupt the clans or Kongeda. That means no fighting them, no taunting them and no attempt to gouge them in trading!"
"I will be in charge!" yelled Kane. "And you will do as the Commander and Heda Adara of the Dragonkru have stated. You want to live, you abide by the rules."
"Dragonkru?" the same man sneered. "That runt isn't a dragon!" Adara looked at him. He was one of the troublemakers in the clan.
"Lioth?" Adara said. "Can you come here and show them what a fully grown dragon looks like?"
Lioth flew over the wall and landed behind the malcontent. He huffed down at the man, who turned around and looked up and up and up.
"Something you want to say to me, little man?" Lioth said to the man. The man turned around and looked up and up and up.
"You can talk to me?"
"All dragons can talk to their riders, and sometimes to other people too. Don't make the mistake of thinking that they are just dumb animals, they're not. They are sentient," said Adara. N'ton nodded vigorously beside her.
"Now, anyone else got any stupid comments, or are you going to comply with us?" Adara enquired of the crowd. No-one said anything, but a lot of nods were seen.
"Kane," Adara said, turning to him. "I formally give you leadership of the Skaikru."
"I accept the leadership. Thank you for your leadership in the first few months of Skaikru's existence."
"May I say something else to the crowd, Heda Kane?" Adara asked, formally. He nodded.
"To those of the hundred, if any of you want to join us, you can but not yet. I need you to stay here and keep this clan stabilised for now while we dragonriders set up our new clan. When we are ready to receive more people, you will be welcome. I ask Sterling, Pascal and Trina to come with us now, though. I need them. I am not making them go, it is up to them."
"I'll come," said Sterling.
"Us too," said Pascal, holding Trina's hand as she nodded.
"Good. In a few moments, Jake will be returning and you can get a ride back on that dragon. If you have warm clothing, you'd better wear it and only take things that you need. We can find clothing for you, but anything personal should be taken." They nodded and set off to find their stuff. Adara stood back and let Kane take over the leadership of the clan. Adara herself talked to her dragon and told her she needed to go get her stuff. Inkalith said she would go back outside with Lioth and sunbathe until it was time to go.
Adara went to her quarters and was relieved that no-one had been in. She pulled out a large backpack and shoved some clothing in it and then she opened her secret compartment and took out the folders in there. Even though the information in the folders was old news by now, she still didn't want anyone to know that she knew months before they did. She didn't want the details of what happened in Mount Weather to be revealed. She also took a few of the small ornaments she'd made.
Next, she went to the tool shed and picked up her toolbox, opened it and looked at what was in it. She was pleased to see that most of her tools had been left alone, but she noticed that one of them was missing. She looked around for it, but couldn't see it. Tomika walked in and watched Adara looking everywhere. Tomika walked over to the toolbox, looked in and saw the pattern on the tools in the box.
"If you're looking for that missing tool, I think Archie has it," Tomika said.
"That loudmouth? Why does he have my tool?"
"Because it was yours and you weren't here to stop him, and because he broke his and couldn't be bothered to resharpen it and replace the handle."
"Where does he keep his tools?"
"Over there," said Tomika, pointing behind Adara. Adara turned and spotted a small table in the dark corner. There was nothing on the table but a cloth. She walked over and lifted the cloth to reveal a tool box. She opened it and saw her tool. She took it out and replaced the box where she had found it.
"If anyone else has had tools go missing, check his toolbox. There's more tools in there than he needs," Adara explained.
"Will do," Tomika said. She hesitated before continuing. "When can I move to your new clan?"
"Not for a few months, Tomika. We don't even have anywhere to stay. We're using that old shopping place at White Oak, but it may not be big enough or that the structure is unstable. Right now, in summer, we can sleep outside, but we'll have to find or build something better for winter. Our dragons are basically like lizards. They need the sun to warm up and in winter, a fire to keep them warm at nighttime."
"Okay," Tomika said, reluctantly, "but as soon as you're taking us in, I'm there! I'd like to be there before the baby arrives!"
"Okay. I'm sure we can find a job for you, after all, we have a lot of dragons to look after!"
"How many?"
"27." Tomika was startled.
"That's a lot!"
"Yeah, for us. But for Pern - where they come from - there are thousands of them."
"Can I have one?"
"Maybe, eventually. Right now, they're too young to breed, but when they do, we'll need people to stand for rider consideration." Tomika squealed in delight.
"Okay, now I have to go so Kane can truly take over leadership. Just be on your guard. Kane and I decided to keep Tim, you, Del and Deek as his advisors. Make sure that the clan is stable before you come to us, okay?"
"You got it," she said, slinging an arm around Adara's shoulders as they walked out of the toolshed.
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After Jake returned and promised to help Kane stay in charge, Adara, Inkalith and the others mounted the dragons and left for White Oak. Once there they unloaded everything and watched as the weyrfolk, stonemason craftmasters and some of the new dragonriders crawled all over the complex, checking for viability as a weyr. They had gotten the older dragons to dig out the building all around and were checking the walls, while others were standing on the roof, digging where the dragons couldn't reach. Some of the older fire-lizards had lent their help and made short work of digging out the roof. They were checking for structural integrity of the roof. The walls may be okay but if the roof wasn't sound, then the building was unusable as it was. Either a new roof was needed, or a complete new building.
Adara walked over to Raven who was checking over whatever was being pulled out of the building.
"What have you got there?" she asked.
"Furniture from that first store. They wanted it emptied to check it out. Both the integrity of the walls, floors and ceiling, and to check on the size of it to see if the fully grown dragons can fit into them. If so, they can use the bigger stores. The stonemasons and timber men are debating whether to take some of the stairways down and build ramps for our smaller dragons so we can use the second level."
"Hmm. Which do you think we should do? I mean, we'll have bigger dragons soon and then where will we live?"
"I don't know. I've been talking to M'kin, the senior rider from Benden and he was saying that when the golds fly to mate at about two years, we'll need a hatching ground and that needs to be constantly hot sands. Those with weyrs in volcanoes, use thermal vents to heat their hatching sands. We don't have a volcano handy - well, except for Azgeda's, and I'm not asking them to share!"
"I know. I was thinking about that on the way here. I think we may have to relocate to one of the caribbean islands. They have hot sands there from the sun and we could be independent. Plus, Luna would be a regular visitor," Adara suggested, with a snigger.
"Well, that's a good enough reason for me!" Raven said, cheekily. Adara laughed.
"Let me find a map of the Caribbean and have a look at what's available," she said, as Raven went back to her job of inventory.
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Adara walked towards the complex and looked around her. To one side, the six green dragons were being fed by their riders, the blues were sleeping while their riders were cutting up the animals that had been hunted. The browns and bronzes were also sleeping while their riders were all helping out in some fashion with the complex. Jill was at one side oiling her dragon with the help of one of the older riders. He was showing her the types of equipment needed to do the job and explaining what happened if the wrong type of brush was used. Jill was listening to it all and taking it in. As a queenrider, she would be expected to take a more hands on role with managing the weyr, or whatever they decided to call it.
Adara made it into the building and made her way to the bookstore to look for the maps she needed. She also looked for books on the area to get a better idea of what to expect. For all she knew, there could still be people living there and she didn't want to accidentally invade anothers territory.
She grabbed one of the baskets the store used for shopping purposes, well, she assumed it was for that, and went round the store, grabbing maps of the eastern USA, central America, the Caribbean and even the northern part of south America. With the dragons, they could fly to wherever they needed to go, so distance wasn't really that big of an issue. She also grabbed some books on the areas called 'travel books' along with some wildlife books for those areas too.
She went back out and saw an argument between Anya and M'kin. She went over to see what it was about.
"What's going on?" Adara asked.
"This man was saying that when our dragons rise to mate, he wants to be the one to have sex with you!" Adara turned to the man.
"Is that right, M'kin. You want Coranith to fly Inkalith and you expect the two of us to have sex as well?"
"Yes. That's the way it is in a weyr. The riders of the mating dragons have sex as well."
"And what about those youngsters who impressed really young? Do you force those children to have sex when their dragons rise?"
"No! Of course not!" M'kin said, angered by such a thought.
"So what happens then?"
"Well, we dose the children with fellis so they don't know what's happening."
"And the other rider?"
"If he's old enough, he'll find a mate to have sex with. The mating drive of a dragon affects the riders too."
"So, if Inkalith rose to mate and Coranith flew her, there's nothing stopping me from choosing my own mate and you can choose someone else. Problem solved." Anya was smirking and M'kin looked confused.
"Why would you look for someone else?"
"Because Anya here is my soulmate and I'm not going to have sex with anyone else. She's it for me." Anya was surprised that Adara said it out loud. M'kin was also confused, but as a Pernese rider, he didn't understand how they could just ignore tradition.
"But you can't!" he exclaimed.
"M'kin, this is Earth. Here we do things differently. We are not going to be having sex with just anyone, it's not in our nature. We are not used to weyr ways and so we are not going to follow every weyr tradition. This is one of them." Adara explained.
"But we're here to teach you how to run a weyr. This is part of it." He was still confused.
"We are not going to be running the weyr the same way you run yours, M'kin. We don't have thread and therefore we don't need to teach our dragons to chew firestone - which I don't even know if there is any on Earth - nor do I see the need to have sex with whichever rider our dragons mate. Do we really need a volcano to weyr in? We have no thread, so building with wood and stone will suffice for us. We just have to learn how to build weyrs big enough for fully grown dragons. That building may be a solution to that. It's not a volcano, it's not made entirely from stone, but it is a place to call home - for now."
Adara turned to Anya and looked at her. She saw Anya looking back at her admiringly before she schooled her face and the look was gone.
"You're going to have to acknowledge it sometime, Anya." With that, Adara turned as walked away.
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AN: M'kin and Coranith are made up by me.