Author's Note

I do not own the Dragonriders of Pern or any related content. All rights belong to their rightful owners.

A big thank you to Lady Ramona, Dragonsrule18 and Hedwygy for your kind reviews, it's nice to know people are enjoying this chaos! To Dragonsrule18, thank you, I also like Luna.

Speaking of chaos, this is probably the most chaotic and non-sensible chapter so far, so you have been warned!

They were woken up at an impossibly early hour considering the eggs still weren't hatching.

It had to be some other emergency.

Tardreela sprang daintily from her bed, every lock of her perfect golden hair falling perfectly into place. Outside the room, that dreadful girl from the day before (what was her name again? Snorana? Scorna? Borina? oh, never mind) was shouting something about getting up and wearing trews (of all things, how was she meant to look delicately innocent in trews?) and being out there in ten minutes.

Tardreela reached for her fourth most beautiful and hard wearing dress, which she had laid out yesterday, and quickly pulled it on. Every crease dropped from the garment the moment the fabric touched her skin. She reached for her roommate's shoulder. The girl had come back late last night in spite of Tardreela's kind warnings, and was flopped out on her side, snoring gently.

"Jakeiria, wake up! We're needed! It's probably time for me to save the Weyr from tragedy."

Jakeiria flapped a hand at her. "Five more minutes Riti."

"It's Tardreela! And it's time to act; come on!"

Jakeiria sighed and rolled gracelessly from the bunk. Tardreela smiled sweetly. "I'll meet you out there."

She wasn't the first up or out. How embarrassing was that? The future saviour of the Weyr not being the first on the case? She was amongst the first though, only the Weyrbred girls and the girl with rainbow hair whose name she couldn't remember and probably didn't matter were before her.

"What's the emergency?" she asked. "Dragonriders injured in unexpected Thread? Egg thieves? The hatching cavern collapsing? A plague? An earthquake? A feline attack?"

The awful weyrbred girl (seriously, what was her name? Vapina?) stared at her.

"Oh, oh, I bet I know! Is it a tsunami? This is an island, so it has to be a tsunami!"

"What nonsense is she spewing?" muttered the girl with bronze hair. The redhead next to her shrugged.

"Fardles if I know."

"There is no emergency," said the blonde slowly.

"No emergency? But-"

"It's just time for morning exercises."

Two of the other girls, the pale one and the dark skinned one, appeared from their room.

"But it's my first day here! There has to be some emergency!"

"If there is, it's not now."

One by one, the other candidates emerged from their rooms, until there was only her roommate, the chubby plain girl, and that red haired girl missing. The weyrbred girl who seemed to have put herself in charge (they'd see about that, obviously she would be in charge here) banged on their doors before shoving them open and shouting inside. The chubby girl emerged, a green firelizard on her shoulder, and took her place in line. "Why've we got to get up so early?"

Tardreela narrowed her eyes at the firelizard. How dare she have that out for show while she herself didn't? Quickly, Tardreela summoned two of her own firelizards, queen Stella and onyx Midnight, to perch on her shoulder. The girl with ordinary brown hair (how could anyone bear that, so dull), whispered something to the one with the gold, bronze, brown, blue and green hair. She frowned and whispered something back before Tardreela could use her superior hearing to listen to what they were plotting. Three firelizards, a queen, a bronze, and a tiny white, appeared from between and perched on the girl's shoulders and head. Tardreela stared. How dare she? She thought she could upstage her? Quickly, she summoned three more of her own firelizards, her second queen Starlight, garnet Ruby and lilac Lilac. The brown haired girl nudged her co-conspiracer. "It's bothering her."

Four more firelizards appeared, another queen, another bronze, a brown, and a blue with a bronze stripe, appeared and perched on the two girls.

Oh, it was on.

Tardreela summoned five more of her own, including her third queen. The other girl summoned six. Tardreela summoned seven. The other girl summoned eight.

By now she was out of places for her flits to perch, while some of the other girl's were perching on her friend. How many did she have? It wasn't fair! Quickly, Tardreela summoned her last three firelizards, pink and orange Apricot, yellow Dawn, and zebra striped Blacky, and ordered them to flit in and out a bit to make it hard to count.

Which was when the candidate master walked in of course.

He looked at them, and then at the firelizards darting happily about the room, and then back at them. "What is going on?" he boomed, his voice echoing through the room.

Unfortunately, that scared the firelizards, which all took to the air and began squawking and diving in panic around the room, and then there was nothing but firelizards while the candidates dove for cover.

Yes!

She had inadvertedly created her own emergency! How clever of her! Everyone should admire her skilz!

Tardreela held her arms out and clicked her tongue for her firelizards, reaching out to those that belonged to the other girl as well. Everyone would admire how well she solved this crisis-

Or at least they would have done, had one of the Queens not flown into her head, and then another three crashed into her legs, knocking her into a delicate and perfectly defendable heap.

"Girls!" shouted the candidate master. "Get these accursed lizards under control!"

The lizards squawked louder at his raised voice – and then dove and fluttered down to land on Cataeliana and Ketielean's shoulders, head, and outstretched arms until the white haired twins could barely be seen under multi-coloured firelizards. Their arms trembled a little under the effort of holding them all. The numerous queens were hardly small or light after all.

"Right. Thank you," said the candidate master.

"No problem," said both twins.

"Who do all these firelizards belong to?"

The other girl raised her hand. The candidate master frowned. "They can't all be yours."

"No, most of them are mine," said Tardeela primly. "I'm sorry candidate master, I think my firelizards must have gotten excited at seeing so many new ones."

"Be sure that you work on training them."

Training them? They were already perfectly behaved, and only needed for show! To prove her point, Tardreela dismissed her firelizards to wherever it was they spent their time when they weren't with her. A little over a third of the lizards flashed between. Those remaining chirped a bit in surprise.

"Is there anyone that could help with training them?" the brown haired girl was asking. "See, Yornam already had all these when I found her, and it's been enough work teaching her!"

"Kuyaran, could you?"

The bronze haired girl with a queen lizard lounging across her shoulders sighed heavily. "Yes, I suppose so. I'll give you a hand girl. Don't have much experience with so many though."

One of the bronze lizards settled on her owner's shoulder, while a blue sat on her friend's. The rest began to flit between.

"Now that that's sorted, let's have you lined up girls."

Even her lazy animal of a roommate couldn't sleep through all the commotion and had slipped out while the girls were trying to deal with the numerous firelizards. They lined up in a neat row, with Tardreela pushed back from her proper place at the front.

"Hm. There's one too few of you again. Where's whatshername with the red hair?"

"Dorasa. She's not in her room sir."

"Right. The rest of you give me your names."

(the weyrbred girl was called Sirena, and the one with all the firelizards was Yornam. Tardreela made a note of it)

"For those who weren't here yesterday, I am D'vran, the candidate master. We'll be starting lessons this morning, after breakfast, and before breakfast you've got exercises to run. Follow me, let's go!"

Exercises? Exercises? What did she need exercises for, she was already perfect!

"Excuse me?" she called. D'vran glanced at her.

"Yes?"

"Am I not exempt from exercises? I mean, look at me. I'm already fit."

"If you can't exercise, you shouldn't be here. Let's go."

Yornam still had that firelizard on her shoulder and Tardreela summoned Stella back to perch on hers. See? Her firelizards were perfectly trained!

They followed the candidate master out to the weyrbowl, where they found Whatshername, their missing candidate. Or at least, they saw her silhouette. She was at the other side of the bowl, atop the highest edge, sparring with another figure, outlined in the rising sun.

"Woah," said the dark skinned girl as the two opponents spun round and round each other, their blades flashing in the sun. It wasn't that impressive really, Tardreela was sure she could do better. After all, she was perfect at everything she tried.

"He will kill her!" shouted Rainbow Hair. "He must be stopped!" She leapt into the air and shot towards the two. The candidate master stared after her. Whatshername and Whoever Was With Her sprang apart and raised their blades as Rainbow Hair approached them.

"I think this is our new normal now," muttered the weyrbred girl (Serina? Sorena?) as she jogged towards the three, the other two weyrbred girls at her heels. The candidate master and other girls trailed behind.

Rainbow Hair had actually tried to attack Whoever Was With Whatshername, using hands glowing red with flame, and he (Tardreela could see it was a he with her perfect eyesight as she got closer) was fending her off with the sword, which now glowed like the sun, as did his eyes. Whatshername fought at his side, her weapon shining silver, along with her eyes.

"Naeressa!" shouted Weyrgirl (she was calling her Weyrgirl from now on, it was so much easier). "Dorasa! Yariel! Stop that at once!"

The three of them broke apart, eyeing each other warily. Tardreela pushed her way to the front, ready to jump in with her superior peacemaking skilz, but of course Weyrgirl had to go wading in to interfere.

"He was attacking her, you all saw!" protested Rainbow Hair.

"We were sparring you- you wherryhead!" Whoever Was With Her shouted back, his eyes still glowing. Tardreela needed to do that, it looked cool.

"You would kill her!"

"We were having fun!"

Weyrgirl sighed. "Yariel, Dorasa, put the swords away. Naeressa, put the… fire away. There is to be absolutely no killing each other. It's time for exercises."

Rainbow Hair glared at Whatshername and Whoever Was With Her as she returned to the other girls, who edged away from her. "I'm watching you Evil One."

"Wherryhead," muttered Whoever Was With Her.

Whatshername stepped a little way down the slope and curtsied to the candidate master. "Am I late for exercises? I'm sorry candidate master, we must have gotten carried away. It won't happen again."

The candidate master only gaped at her.

"Make sure it doesn't," said Weyrgirl. "D'vran, exercises?"

He gaped at her too.

"Oh dear," drawled Bronze Hair. "I think you three broke him."

"Right then. Fifteen laps around the bowl, hop to it girls."

"Hold on, who put you in charge?" asked Jakeiria.

"I am the Senior Girl, and I know exactly what he'd have us do. Fifteen laps around the bowl. And then fifteen situps and fifteen pushups when you finish. Sooner you finish the sooner you get to bathe and eat. It's normally twenty for the boys if you want to join us Yariel."

He smiled. "I'd love to, thank you Sirena."

Sirena! That was it!

Fifteen laps wasn't even that hard. Tardreela ran it in twelve minutes, finishing first without a drop of sweat on her perfect alabaster skin. She completed the other exercises easily too of course, all with Stella still perched on her shoulder. Such was her perfection.

Whatshername and the boy were amongst those who finished first of the other candidates. Tardreela siddled over to him. "Yariel," she said sweetly, even remembering his name despite his unimportance. He glanced at her.

"Yes?"

"Do you think you could – spar – with me?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Can you fight?"

"I'm a fast learner."

"No."

"But you must! Look, we can use these conveniently placed sticks!" She picked up two perfectly sized and placed sticks from the otherwise treeless land and brought them over to him. "Come on!"

"No thank you." He got to his feet and held his arm out for Whatshername. "Let's go bathe."

Tardreela saw red.

How could he ignore her?!

Her!

She was more beautiful than- than that, and more beautiful, and speshul, and precious!

How dare he!

How dare he?!

This was Whatshername's fault! She was addling his brain, clearly! Once she was out the way, he'd have to see her perfection!

She hit Whatshername with the stick.

It was a bad move.

1000%

Yeriel spun to face her, his eyes glowing gold, and attempted to punch her in her perfect face. Luckily, Tardreela was quick and fit, and darted effortlessly aside.

"Never touch my sister!" he roared, and the sound was inside her head, filling the air like thunder.

"She doesn't deserve your protection! Look at her!"

Standing there with glowing eyes instead of meekly waiting to be rescued like a decorative object. What was she thinking? Ugh! Tardreela summoned some of her numerous firelizards to claw and scratch at the girl, who was forced to divert from the fight in order to fend them off.

Yes! Yiroel's attention was hers! Hers alone!

"She has been by my side longer than anyone!"

"Oh come, you wouldn't really choose her over all this, would you?" Tardreela asked, leading him away across the slope. Obviously once they got to the edge they would share a passionate and fiery kiss.

"Every time!" he bellowed. Above them, the sun seemed to shine brighter. Tardreela frowned and summoned more firelizards to attack the other girl. He couldn't possibly want her once she was all scratched up and ugly.

"Call those damn lizards off!"

Tardreela fluttered her eyelashes at him. "Why don't you make me big boy?"

Yoruil drew his sword. It struck Tardreela then.

Of course! This must be what she was here for! This was the Emergency; her destiny!

"Yuraol, listen to me! She is corrupting your mind! I am here to save you!"

He swung at her with the sword. That bitch must have better corrupting powers than she thought. Skillfully, Tardreela caught the blow on her stick using her newly found swordfighting skilz and darted to the side.

Yareul lunged at her suddenly, grabbing for her hand. Tardreela sprang back with a shy smile. She knew he'd never be able to resist her charms.

Her foot slipped.

See, Tardreela had failed to account for one thing.

The cliff.

She slipped, rather gracefully and perfectly, backwards into the open air. Her numerous beloved firelizards dove after her, trying desperately to catch her or slow her fall, but her perfect gold hair refused to catch or tangle, slipping through their talons and settling perfectly back into a halo around her perfect face as she fell, and her soft skin slipped from their hold.

"Avenge me," she screamed as she fell.

Yariel sheathed his sword. "Crazy bitch."

Sirena raced over the cliff edge, quickly followed by the girl with the rainbow hair. "What happened?"

"She fell."

At the bottom, her broken body lay perfectly across some conveniently placed jagged rocks. Yariel glanced at the other girls who were now gathering around Dorasa. "You all saw that, right? She fell."

They nodded in agreement.

The candidate master continued to gape.

Author's Note

As you might be able to tell, I had far too much fun writing this chapter, and it remains one of my favourites in the entire thing. If you're going to drop a review anywhere, let it be here.