Chapter 1 – Multiple Impressions
No matter how hard I try, I cannot lay this egg! It is too large to come out! I hiss, I moan, I groan, it hurts! I can't get it out! Rollith is lying beside me, and she is having the same problem. Our moans are affecting all of Fort Weyr, who have come out to the Hatching Grounds to watch the tableau. G'narish is recording on his phone, but there's a new camera crew on the perimeter of the Hatching Grounds, recording live so that whoever's watching TV can see it happening. This is the first ever news broadcast, and plenty of people will want to watch dragons lay eggs.
"Shall we get the Masterhealer over here?" Elli asks. "I can feel Chlorith's pain. It seems as though she has a big egg."
"Yes, it does, doesn't it?" remarks the Masterharper. "All the queens seem to have larger eggs today. Miroirth just laid a huge one over there."
Let me try it on my own, I say in a pained voice. Dragons are not meant to have c-sections.
"How do you even know what a c-section is?" Elli demands aloud, stunned by this discovery.
"That might be a good idea," Sebell remarks. "This may be unprecedented. If the queens can't lay these eggs, we might have to get them out ourselves."
I push even harder. I moan, groan, and even keen, but I'm making no headway. Elli comes up to me and begins to rub my stomach. I feel her need to push on the stomach the way they do with humans, but she is afraid it'll damage the eggs too much. After another hour of failed attempts to get the egg out, she has no choice. Gingerly at first, she begins to press on my abdomen—finally pressing her whole body on it. The effect is instantaneous. The egg finally begins to move. It makes its slow and painful way out of my body. The result is the largest queen egg any of them have ever seen!
I lay back, exhausted. There is no way in hell I'm going to be able to lay any more eggs today! Elli has moved to assist Rollith, who is still having trouble laying her large egg. It is also a queen, and she too lays back, exhausted. We don't need fellis to sleep, or even that medicine the Masterhealer has invented to make dragons sleep. I just need a big rest.
The following morning, I take time to examine my clutch. Something tells me that big egg I laid yesterday is very special. I curl myself possessively around it, not even letting Rollith near it. I always let Rollith near my clutches because she clutches at the same time I do. But this time, it is different. I won't even eat because I'm afraid someone's going to want to examine my egg. What damage would come to it if I let anyone near it?
Rollith, Miroirth, and Zareth are in similar grumpy, possessive moods. Even our riders are affected by our moods. Their weyrmates put it down to them being in the first or second trimester of pregnancy, but I know what it really is. None of us will calm down until our eggs hatch.
There is a larger number of candidates than usual, but I snarl at any of them who dare approach my eggs! My queen is unique. She'll be the largest queen on Pern if nothing happens to her.
"Chlorith, you're paranoid," Elli chuckles, gently patting my neck as she grins up at me.
I growl at her. I don't even think to use telepathy with her.
"Nothing's wrong with your egg, silly. You're just plain paranoid!"
Miroirth and Zareth have also laid queens, but neither of them is as large as mine or Rollith's. For once in their lives, they're more protective of the mottled eggs that are far too large to be normal. Bronzes, perhaps, to mate with our queens?
Finally, the day comes, and I'm a nervous wreck. Elli tries to calm me down but to no avail. I hiss at anyone who comes too close to my queen egg.
"You have to stop that, Chlorith," Elli says gently. "You have to let her make Impression."
I won't let anyone near her until she hatches, I state firmly.
The thrumming of the other dragons reaches a fever pitch. I bugle a warning as the first egg cracks. It is of Rollith's clutch, and she bugles several times before Impression is made. The little bronze dragonet walks with his new rider to the edge of the sands to get some meat scraps. The smell of the food makes me even more irascible. Serves me right for not eating before I clutched.
The second egg cracks. This time, it is of my clutch, but not the large one. Once again, Impression is made, and the little green dragon walks off with her lifemate.
Miroirth's large egg splits right down the middle; gasps of disbelief sweeping the crowd assembled in the Hatching Grounds. I stare in amazement, hardly believing what I'm seeing. Not one but two bronze dragonets struggle to extricate themselves from the shell!
Twins! What the actual shards?! How can dragons produce identical twins?
And that's when, in a single startling heartbeat, I suddenly recall Ariana's dreams! By the First Egg!
The twin bronze dragonets struggle to get out of a shell too small for them. Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, six-year-old Aidan jumps down from his seat in the tiers to assist them; his actions very reminiscent of what Jaxom had done for his lifemate, Ruth, those many Turns ago. His twin brother, Michael, jumps down, as well. They steal their father's belt knife and cut at the shell, their efforts finally releasing the two bronzes from their confinement. They, in turn, raise adoring eyes to the six-year-old twins.
"He says his name is Warth!" Aidan exclaims, tears cascading down his face.
"He says his name is Worth!" Michael cries, throwing his trembling arms around his new weyrmate.
N'ton looks on helplessly as the boys join the small knot of new weyrlings. Zareth's egg cracks and we go through the same procedure, only two much older boys assist the twins to their feet. They join the small group, gazing tauntingly down at the pair of younger twins.
Rollith's egg cracks. I hold my breath, because whatever is wrong with hers is also wrong with mine. Two of the girls go to the queen's side to assist her, but when the shell is finally open, they discover twins once again. Rollith bugles a challenge, but it's too late. Impression is made. Finally, my egg cracks right down the middle like the others had. There is no struggle this time. One queen flops out one side of the shell, and her golden twin flops out of the other side. They rise unsteadily to their feet, creeling with hunger, looking for their new riders, but no candidate on the grounds seems interesting to them.
"Mommy," Ariana cries, seizing my rider's arm, "They're coming this way!"
Flabbergasted, Elli stammers, "How can they both want someone outside the grounds?"
"Ask Chlorith and Rollith," Tiffany replies, grinning at her pseudo twin.
"Something's nudging me on the leg," Oriana complains. "Get it off me! I don't like being licked by dogs."
"There're no dogs in the Hatching Grounds, silly," says Ariana. "That's a dragon!"
"Can I keep her, Mommy?" Oriana begs at her sweetest. "Please?"
"It appears we have no choice," Elli says indulgently. "You have to remember to take care of her, though. She's a dragon, not a baby doll."
"Where's mine?" Ariana whines. "I'm supposed to have one, too!"
"She's climbing up the steps," Oriana tells her. "I think she's yours, Ari!"
Sure enough, the little queen falls into Ariana's lap. Elli's daughter, now completely recovered from the fire-head, helps the little golden dragon to her feet. That illness would forever leave Ari blind, but as Elli and Tiffany have taught the world, being a blind dragonrider was no problem at all as long as their dragons were not also blind.
"I'll remember to take care of her," Ariana says, looking at her sister. "She has no 'spons'bility ever! She will never remember to oil and bathe her and let her eat. I will."
"They'll still be children when their dragons rise to mate," Elli worries. "Unless a nine-year-old can go through puberty early. Raeana didn't go through puberty until she was eleven."
"It's been known to happen," Manora says gently. "Especially in the Weyrs."
"When can I bring her home, Mama?" Oriana plaintively asks, hugging her new golden lifemate.
"I can't go between," Elli says softly. "As soon as the babies are born, we can go back to Honshu. F'lessan has been restoring it for us."
I, too, will be glad to get home, I say. I would like to bask in the sun and swim with the dolphins again.
"And G'narish'll feel better once he's away from a fighting Weyr," Elli adds. "He's really had a lot of nightmares, lately. Of course, I can't fight Thread anyway, but he wouldn't let me if I could."
"I know," Tiffany tells my rider. "It wakes me and F'rangle up. We're right next door to you." Hearing Elli's groan, she adds, "I'm not annoyed. I want to help, but I'm not as good at comforting as you are. I just stand around uncomfortably until you calm yourself down. But we've done this so often in our role plays that you'd think I'd know what to do. The guy needs serious meds, but they haven't even started working in the mental health field yet. I don't know what to do for him."
"All we can do is help him through it, twin," Elli sighs, giving her pseudo twin a hug of gratitude. "He's almost normal when there's no Thread in the sky, but at night and when there's Threadfall, he's an absolute lunatic! He just goes totally berserk, and there's nothing we can do about it till it passes. I can't wait till the Pass is over. That'll solve all his problems."