Disclaimer: the Dragonriders of Pern is copyright to Anne McCaffrey.

Later, in the weyrling barracks.

:What! You're saying that they actually decided to let Jesece stay:

After her rather loud outburst, Venaket sat up in her bed to give her friends a rather annoyed stare.

:It seems that they decided that spending some time here at Pern might teach her some dicipline, she did Impress a gold after all. So it do have some sense, no matter how annoying: Beriin replied, he had no less annoyed when he had first heard the announcement a little earlier.

Jesece herself were probably even more annoyed though, as she were definitely not the kind of person who would have wanted to spend months at such a primitive backwater planet like Pern. Not that she had much of a choice in this matter though, the decisions of the people in charge was usually final.

If only he could have been there when Jesece was informed of the decision of the project leaders, Beriin thought with a wry smile. To be told that she would have to stay at Pern till they decided otherwise had certainly not been in her plans when she went and Impressed that gold.

:Oh, if I only could have seen her face..: Cheorek said, chuckling out loud at the same time as he pushed his glasses further up on the bridge of his nose.

:That would have been a memorable moment don't ya think:.

The three others nodded, and then they all glanced over at their dragonets to make sure that they were still sleeping. And a moment later they grinned at each other as Koreketh uttered a particulary loud snore.

"Hows Aelth faring though? None of us got much of a chance to get a good look at him earlier" Loegrehn asked, speaking aloud as talking about their dragonets were hardly a subject they would have to keep secret.

"Sound asleep, just as yours. We should probably go to bed soon though, it is the fact that we have to get up early tomorrow to feed and oil our new friends you know" Cheorek said, smiling at the thought of the dragonet he had Impressed just a few hours earlier.

Beriin nodded in understanding, although he and the other hadn't known each other for more than a few weeks before they came to Pern, the dragonets were already a topic they found very easy to talk about.

"Oh, it's still no more than half an hour since sunset. I would say that it is still a little early to think about going to bed, we can certainly talk for a while longer".

None of the other disagreed, when they were 'alone' in the Weyr it was actually quite nice to have someone to talk with.

"But about Jesece..., I really hope that she wont cause any problems. I would hate it if she decided to start bothering us" said Venaket,

:Back at the project HQ, she was Not a nice person at all. Why they gave her permission to come to Pern at all is beyond me:

Although he hadn't really talked to Jesece before, Beriin had heard enough of rumors about the girl, so somehow he felt sorry for whoever that shared a room with her. Hopefully it would be someone who could deal with her behaviour.

Then he leaned slightly forwards to stroke Tolaketh's side lightly, listening to the brown's breathing.

"The Weyrlingmaster seemed to be a tough guy though, and I doubt that any of the goldriders will let Jesece get away with any bad behaviour either. Since the Weyrwomen have to assist with the running of the Weyr its essential that they're capable of handling that responsibility".

Now when he had thought about it, Beriin did feel that he were starting to feel a little tired after the Hatching and the Feast, but he wasn't ready to go to bed quite yet. He couldn't suddenly change his mind just a few minutes after he had said that they should spend some more time talking.

"If we are really lucky, we won't be seeing much of her at all" Loegrehn said, "let's hope that she'll soon find out that having a gold dragon isn't aseasy as she thought".

Not one of the four disagreed with that. But still, for the project's sake, they did hope that Jesece really would improve, as another gold dragon would be extremely valuable.

"Let's find a nicer subject to talk about, shall we. Like our beautiful new friends?".

Vekaket grumbled as she stepped out of her bed to sit down beside Greteyth's couch.

For once Beriin was glad for that Venaket was present, anything was better than muttering about their dislike of Jesece. Too bad that Cheorek had been given a room closer to the exit of the weyrling barracks, but it made sense that the larger dragons had less of a distance to walk through the barracks as that would make it less likely that they knocked anything down. But still, it might have made things easier if they had all been assigned to the same room, especially at those times that they needed privacy.

"Good idea. Anyone else who almost can't wait till tomorrow when our dragonets will be awake again?" Beriin asked, feeling almost sad at the thought of that it would take weeks before Tolaketh and the others would begin to spend more time awake. While it was necessary for the dragonets, he wouldn't have minded it if he would have more time to speak with Tolaketh. Anyway, he would just have to be patient till the little brown got older.

"Of-course I do, so I'm glad that well be spending most of the night sleeping. I wouldn't want to have to wait all those hours waiting for Greteyth to wake up again. Even if she looks so deceptively sweet when she's sleeping.."

Venaket stroked her green's headknobs tenderly as she smiled, "and look at that bluish spot just below her eye. Looks rather strange against the rest of her hide, doesn't it?".

Beriin chuckled.

"That's true. Although the pernese dragons are restricted to five colors, they can be quite noticeable anyway. There's a lot of variations within each color".

Gazing at each other, all four grinned, and then Loegrehn yawned.

"Perhaps we should agree upon that it is time to go to bed?" he asked.

"Watching Koreketh sleep is making ME sleepy".

Then he leaned backwards against the wall, "I wonder how it will be like to wake up tomorrow. Now when we all have a young dragon to take care of..".

No protests came from any of the others, so after Cheorek had left for his own room, Beriin and the others wished each other a good nights sleep and went to bed. However, it took some time before Beriin finally fell to sleep, there was so many things that had happened this day.

Now when he had Tolaketh, what would his life be like in the future?