Author's Note

I do not own The Dragonriders of Pern, any related content or anything you see and recognise. All rights to the original creators and owners.

A big thank you to everyone who has reviewed!

To Bud Broshears, we will eventually see the hatching! The story more follows the characters as the candidate class though.

To Hedwygy, they're not, I never watched that show though I did watch The Last Airbender, but after looking them up I think they might have been based/designed on similar tropes. It's funny you should mention that show though…

She was awoken far too early by shrill screams ringing through the candidate barracks. It sounded like Ritilia. Jakeiria, who had never willingly helped another in her life (unlike her younger, sweeter, kinder sister), was tempted to roll over and go back to sleep, but it occurred to her selfish mind that if there was a danger, it could come after her next. She stretched out her slender limbs, shapely and fine since she had left all the true work on the farm to her sister and brothers, picked up the glass by her bed for a weapon, and cracked the door open just in time to see a flash of red hair vanish through the common room door, which slammed closed second later. Kuyaran quickly yanked it open and scrambled out of sight. Jakeiria stepped from her chambers. "What is going on?"

The screaming was definitely Ritilia, she decided, and noticed the door to her chambers was open, Revina's copper haired figure stood in the doorway. She glanced at her.

"We've had a break-in. They got into Ritilia and Annaliessa's room."

"It's too early for this. I'm going back to bed."

"Is that Jakeiria? Send her in," Sirena called before she could open the door.

"Ugh, why? It's far too early for this."

"Your sister needs you!"

"She's a big girl."

The screaming broke off for a moment and Ritilia's voice cried out her name. Jakeiria wrenched her door open and slammed it closed behind her, pulling her pillow over head to try and shut out some of the noise.

She got barely another half hour of uncomfortable rest before Sirena started to bang on doors. Jakeiria took the time to dress properly and make her hair look presentable before joining the other girls in the common room. The Weyrleaders were there with them, along with several other men in bronze and brown rider knots. Ritilia was huddled up against Yornam on one of the sofas, Yornam's arms wrapped securely around her. Her face was red and tearstreaked. A queen firelizard was curled up in her lap and a bronze one wrapped tightly around her neck. Annaliessa sat on her other side, wide eyed and teary, with Rasia holding her hands on their knees. A brown firelizard sat on her shoulder. Sirena lounged behind the four girls, her face set stony and hard. "Nice of you to decide to join us."

Jakeiria sneered and took a seat on the other sofa. She thought she was all that because her mother was the Weyrwoman, but she'd be nothing once the Hatching was over and Jakeiria had her Queen.

Her sister, Ritilia, had always been a dreamer with her head in the clouds, drifting through life with no desires, but Jakeiria was ambitious, longing for splendour and success.

Sunspyre Weyr was not turning out to be what she had expected. She was a Queen candidate: she ought to be pampered, spoiled, and showered with gifts from handsome bronze riders wanting to win her favour early!

Well.

That last one was still happening. But they also expected her to do physical exercise, lessons, and actual chores. Jakeiria was a skilled seamstress, but she would never get her hands dirty with harder chores.

"They're still searching the Weyr for the intruder," said the Weyrleader. Jakeiria frowned.

"What intruder?"

"Maybe if you'd been here you'd know," snapped Revina. Jakeiria scowled at her. She scowled back.

"It was the man from yesterday," whispered Ritilia. "And he- he- he-" She burst into tears and buried her head in Yornam's ample chest. Fardles, she was such a crybaby! The firelizards twittered anxiously and nuzzled at her neck. Jakeiria rolled her eyes.

"Rest assured, he will be found and brought to justice."

"You won't find him," muttered the girl with the toddler (Ingrid? Lilac?)

"He's too good at hiding," said the boy at her side, who looked enough like her and Jakeiria had seen with her enough to assume he was her brother. The toddler in her lap nodded far too sagely for a toddler.

"Toggle."

"Our sister says no one ever finds him."

"Well, we will. Whoever he is, he's killed one of our riders, and for that he will pay."

"He's killed more than that," muttered the girl, leaning against her brother.

"More riders?" asked the Weyrwoman with a frown.

"More people," clarified the girl.

"Anyone who tries to look after us," said the boy.

"Tecra!" said the toddler.

"She says that's why he killed the rider."

"I see. Well, there's nowhere for him to hide here. This is an island, and all my riders know each other. In the meantime, I'm going to have you all moved back to the Queen's Weyr, where it's safer."

Great. Another day shut in with these idiots.

At least they got to miss morning exercises.

The next girl to arrive was brought in as they were eating breakfast in the Queen's Weyr and introduced herself as Daisuke Laila Dionte, or Daisaila for short. Her most prominent feature was the bluish silver arrows painted down her arms to end at her hands and over the back of her head to end at her forehead.

"What's with the body paint?" Revina asked.

Daisuke Laila Dionte, or Daisaila for short, blushed a soft pink. Jakeiria snorted.

"Probably to hide her freakishness."

Daisuke Laila Dionte, or Daisaila for short, scowled, and the painted arrows began to glow. "It is a very ancient important tradition of my family, of which I am tragically the last. Apologise now for your slight, you- you ignoramus!"

Jakeiria waved a hand at her. "Fine, fine. Whatever. Keep your paint."

The arrows glowed brighter. Daisuke Laila Dionte's, or Daisaila's for short, eyes began to glow.

"It's not paint!" she shrieked.

"It looks like paint," said Annaliessa.

"It does look like paint," agreed Revina helpfully.

"It's not paint," screamed Daisuke Laila Dionte, or Daisaila for short. The flames in the fireplace roared upwards and outwards. Mary Sue and Tummi shrieked while the siblings with the toddler sprang to their feet and rolled, instinctive-looking, over the back of the stone sofa to put a barricade between them as flames roared up the stone wall. The liquid in the jugs and vases began to shake and rise in long, watery tenticles. Rasia and Yornam swept Ritilia and the other younger candidates behind them, forming a barrier between them and the fire. Yornam's many, many, many firelizards fluttered around them, squawking. Naeressa's hands exploded into flame and she rushed at the other girl, only for the water now circling around her to slam into her chest and hurl her over the weyr ledge. Yariel and Dorasa drew their blades, but the wicked wind whipping through the Weyr threw the two back against the stone wall. Yariel slid lifelessly to the floor while Dorasa's eyes shone a brighter silver than the new girl's. Silver light splashed down over her skin, playing across her scarlet hair.

The door flew open and one of the bronzeriders meant to be guarding them appeared around the edge.

"Everything alright in here?"

The floor began to shake, small pebbles rising into the air. Rasia and Yornam gathered up the siblings with the toddler and began to steer all the younger candidates towards the weyr ledge. Dorasa rolled onto all fours.

"What do you think?" screamed Kuyaran. Shards of stone began to pelt the candidates (and rider), one hitting one of the twins hard enough to cut their cheek and draw blood. The two, who had until now been seemingly uncaring of the chaos unfurling around them, reached for each other and linked hands. The rider drew his knife.

"You need to calm down!" he shouted into the whirlwind screaming around the girl. The only result was that a blast of air slammed into his chest, throwing him into the now closed door.

Now was probably the time to leave. Jakeiria edged across the room to join the candidates now on the ledge. Somehow, the two with the toddler and the ugly girl with the firelizard were already on the ground far below.

There was a delicate, feminine cry from behind them. Jakeiria and Rasia turned to see the new girl, Daisuke Laila Dionte, or Daisaila for short, was on the floor, blood pooling dramatically around her. The rider stood behind her, his knife in hand, stained scarlet, and Dorasa was stood to one side, her own sword hanging from her slender fingers, blood dripping from the blade.

"Is she… Is she dead?" Rasia asked.

Dorasa kicked the body, hard.

"Yup," she agreed, sheathing her sword and moving to help a groaning Yariel to his feet.

"Thanks bro," muttered Kuyaran, making her way over to the rider. He touched her shoulder.

"You alright?"

"Think so."

"Send Dancer to the Weyrleaders, tell them what's happened."

Kuyaran's bronze firelizard flashed between.

"Is anyone hurt?" Sirena asked.

By some absolute miracle, most of the candidates, though shaken and battered, were unhurt. The only injuries sustained were to Yariel and Dorasa, the twin who cut their cheek (it turned out to be the boy, which gave them a way of telling them apart), and the ugly firelizard girl, who had sprained her ankle escaping the weyr. Sirena hurried them all from that weyr and down the corridor to the Head-Weyrwoman's, while the other rider on guard retrieved those out in the bowl and then took those that had been hurt down to the infirmary. Several of the candidates were crying, and that girl with far too many names kept trying to drape herself over the bronze rider that saved them, who had a hand on Kuyaran at all times as though he thought she might vanish if he stopped touching her.

Head-Weyrwoman Jalenna was horrified when she heard what had happened, more so when she learnt some of the candidates had been injured.

"And where were you?" she demanded of the rider.

"Right there protecting us, like he was meant to be," Kuyaran snapped. Her firelizard trilled a cross sounding note. She waved a hand at Jakeiria. "Besides, she was the one set her off!"

"Me?"

"You had to make that comment about the weird paint."

"I apologised; she made it worse!" Jakeiria jabbed her finger at Annaliessa.

"Well it did look like paint!"

"Did you have to keep telling her that?" snapped Rasia.

Weyrwoman Jalenna rubbed her head. "Girls, girls!"

The group of them continued arguing until the Weyrleader bellowed for silence and they fell quiet.

"We will talk to you, in groups, and work out what happened. In the meantime, you are to stay with J'kon and Korsath in another of the empty weyrs. He will be taking over as candidate master for the girls."

Kuyaran frowned and narrowed her eyes. "What, a real one this time?"

"Yes, a real one this time." She indicated the man behind her, who wore bronzerider's knots. "Sirena, Kuyaran, Revina, wait here. Everyone else, follow your new candidate master."

J'kon was an ugly, grizzled beast of a man, not a bronzerider Jakeiria wanted to waste any time with. He wasted no time in using his own dragon as a teaching aid and getting most of the girls involved in an anatomy lesson. Jakeiria was called out an hour later to tell the Weyrleaders her version of the story before being escorted back to the weyr.

Since they were to be in the weyr all day, the lesson lasted all day, like they were eight turns old in front of the Harper or something. The twins and the ugly girl returned from the infirmary, but Yariel and Dorasa never did. Neither, Jakeiria noticed, did that girl with the rainbow coloured hair.

The only other candidates to arrive that day were three young girls who said they were sisters, though the only similarity Jakeiria could see between them was that they were all small and annoying. The first was a slender red haired girl called Sakura Shompoo Cherry Blossom, who had large, slightly luminious pink eyes. The second was a broadshouldered, muscular girl with shorter black hair and brilliant green eyes called Sherazzo Connifer Bluebel, and the third was a slightly smaller, waifish creature with radiant blue eyes who introduced herself as Siovati Ovature Bliss. All of them were there as candidates for a green dragon, and so none of them were of any interest or competition to Jakeiria. She just hoped they were normal, and tried to tell herself she hadn't seen the blue eyed one levitate slightly when she tripped and fell over her own feet.

She only had to last five weeks of this, Jakeiria told herself, and buried the part of her that wanted desperately to grab Ritilia and catch the next boat back to the mainland away from all this insanity. She only had to last five weeks, and then she'd have her Queen dragon. It would all be worth it, and it would not be her problem.

When evening fell and the girls were given the option, they decided unanimously to stay in the empty weyr. Straw and blankets were brought in to make makeshift beds for them, and they organised a watch schedule for four of them to always be awake during the night, despite the riders sat on guard right outside the door.

Ritilia fell asleep huddled between Rasia and Yornam.

Jakeiria scowled and told herself she wasn't jealous.