Author's Note

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

To the Guest that reviewed, thank you for your review and thought!

To Dragonsrule18, thank you! Tardreela really did set herself up for the literal and metaphorical fall.

Once Upon A Time, on a planet and in a land far far away, there lived a beautiful young girl. Her hair was a beautiful and brilliant golden blonde, so bright bronze firelizards sometimes mistook it for a queen in flight, her eyes were as clear and blue as the sky on a summer's day, her lips were a perfect pale pink, like a newly blossomed flower, and her skin was as white as snow.

Even greater than this fair maiden's beauty however, was her delicate, gentle, and kind nature. She was sweet and loving, treating everything with delicate respect; she had not a bit of vice in her; and she tasted everything from the smallest of mice to the nearest of people with polite and tender kindness.

She also had a wonderful singing voice that could charm the birds from the trees and calm even the angriest of angry runners.

Her name was Ellador.

Unfortunately, because the world is never fair, this great and kind beauty had known great hardships and unhappiness in her short life. Her mother had died when she was only an hour old, and her father, believing his daughter needed a mother to look up to, remarried a Ranking lady with two young daughters of her own. His new wife was cruel, hateful, and spiteful, a word which here means cruel and hateful. She favoured her own daughters, and treated Ellador poorly, but only when her father, who was often away, was unable to see (which was often).

Then one day, a terrible disaster stuck.

Ellador's father, who was often away trading, died when a great tree fell on his cart.

From that day on Ellador was expected to be her stepmother's drudge. Her stepsisters got fine clothes, but Ellador was dresses in rags. Her stepsisters got good food, but Ellador was given only scraps from the leftovers. Her stepsisters could laze around all day, but Ellador was forced to take care of the housework and animals.

To keep her spirits high, she sang as she did so, charming all around her (except her mean stepmother and sisters). Her only friends were the sun, the moons, the stars, and the four firelizards she impressed one day when she was out picking flowers.

"It doesn't matter that my family hates me and I have no other friends. At least I have you four, and you love me," she would say and her firelizards would cheep lovingly.

One day there came a notice from the Weyr.

"There are dragonriders coming here tomorrow on search!" cried her wicked stepmother. "They have a queen egg on the sands and want us to present all girls of age between sixteen and twenty one. You shall be taken to the Weyr and one of you shall impress it!"

"Oh, we shall need dresses," said the older of the sisters, a tall, thin girl with ugly brown hair and eyes.

"And jewellery," said the younger, who was shorter with wide hips and a pouty face.

"And shoes."

"And perfume."

"May I have the evening free?" Ellador asked quietly.

"Whatever for?"

"I would like to repair my dress before the dragonriders come."

"You? Meet the dragonriders? Don't make me laugh. Now, help the girls prepare. There is a lot to do."

Ellador sighed sadly. "Yes Lady Teroune."

Ellador's stepsisters kept her so busy that evening tailoring dresses, helping them bathe and putting their hair in curlers that she fell asleep in the parlour that night, crying in the embers of the fire. Her four beloved firelizards huddled around her and offered their comfort.

"If only I could just see the dragons, I would be happy," Ellador cried. Her firelizards chirped and trilled.

"Oh, it's at times like this I miss my dear departed parents so much. My father, he wanted nothing but to see me happy, and my mother, I remember how she smiled as she wasn't me a lullaby and set me abed. Oh, I miss them so!"

In the morning, her stepsisters were dressed up to look fine (Ellador thought they looked like pigs in dresses, but she was too sweet and good to make comment on it). They left early to travel to the main Hold and be presented to the dragonriders. Ellador watched them leave with a sigh.

"Oh, if only I could see the dragons. How wonderful they must be!"

She tried to distract herself by closing all the curtains and oiling her beloved firelizards. "I would like to see them, just once."

Her firelizards peeped crossly. They thought it most unfair that Ellador could not achieve her desire to see their bigger cousins.

So distracted was she by her misery and also by her oiling her firelizards she didn't know she had a visitor until the banging on the door stayed. Her stepmother had fired all the staff long ago and so she was the only one home.

"Oh my! I wonder who that could be!"

Ellador hurried down to open the door. Outside she found a glowing blue dragon in the yard and a tall, handsome man on the doorstep. Ellador blushed. "Can I help you?"

"Charminth and I were looking for the source of power we felt here. I think I found it."

Ellador blushed more.

"I am P'nir, and this is Charminth. You have great power in you. Would you like to come to the Weyr and stand for the queen egg?"

"Oh, yes sir!"

"Is there anything you want to bring? Anyone you want to say goodbye to?"

Ellador glanced back at the house, and then in a rare display of courage and characterisation, she shook her head. "No. There's nothing here."

And so Ellador set off for the Weyr with P'rin and Charminth in search of a queen dragon and a happily ever after.