Disclaimer: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.
Chapter Ten: Downtown Day
The next morning Nairyry woke slowly, then opened her eyes and looked around. She was lying in a strange bed. For a moment she didn't realize where she was, but at the sight of her bedding it all came back. After they had eaten Jess had told her that it would be best if her father didn't know she was there, and made up a comfortable bed in her closet.
A dress brushed her face and she waved it away. She stood up between the clothes and cautiously pushed the door open, listening hard. From the direction of the kitchen she heard two people, what sounded like Jess and a man talking. Her father, likely. After a moment she heard the door close and quietly went to the door and looked outside of it, then, still feeling unsure in this new world, came into the kitchen. Jess was sitting at the table, staring into a mug of something. She was clearly just awake. Nairyry glanced at the window, finding that it was still early morning.
"Good morning," she greeted the teenager, mostly to announce her presence gently.
Jess started and looked up at her quickly, half raising her hand. "Oh! Hi!" she said. "Sorry, but… don't you make any noise?"
Nairyry frowned. She had made noise, or at least thought she had. "Didn't I? Anyway, you said I should not make my presence known, not to mention you looked like I could have droped Thyrath on you… again ," they smiled, "and you wouldn't have blinked twice. Is there something wrong :
"Oh- no. Actually… um, your clothes…" Nairyry looked down at the loose, soft pants and shirt in pale blue that Jess had provided. "Not those, but the ons you were wearing when you got here. I've got some savings, and I don't think you really should go around town in those. They're a bit… out of place in New York."
"They're new, you know," the dragonrider began, but Jess cut her off hastily.
"They're nice, yes, but you wouldn't… blend in here. People might- men might, um…" She trailed off, coloring slightly.
"You mean that I might be… taken advantage of here." Nairyry looked away. "There is no escape from it anywhere, is there?" It was not a question for her. "I do not know what is normal here, though."
"Oh, no problem. I think we can find something to get you downtown, then we'll try stuff on and get you… at least two outfits we can mix and match. I don't know how long it will take for you and Thyrath to be able to leave, but it will be a while, I think, with that wing. After we go shopping we'll rendezvous with Thyrath 'n Tristan and get your dragon down to that place I know."
Nairyry shrugged acceptance and smiled crookedly, sliding into a chair. "I do not know what to do here so I'll just follow you, I guess."
Jess smiled ironically. "How refreshing. Someone who doesn't know everything, or think they do."
The dragonrider missed her sarcasm completely. Quite seriously, she said, "I am somewhat knowledgeable of my own world, but here I am an outsider. As you said, even my clothes do not fit in here, much less my queen."
"Queen? You have queens on your world?" Poor Jess, Nairyry thought with a slightly pitying smile.
"Queen dragon; gold dragon. Queens are gold, and they and greens are the only female dragons. The others, bronze, brown and blue, are male. Green is the lesser color, just as brown is superior to blue but slightly inferior to bronze. Bronzes fly the queens, and all males can fly a green- mate with them when they rise in heat, that is. Usually greens are unable to lay eggs, seeing as they chew firestone to breath flame, so the role of egg-laying is given to golds like my Thyrath."
Jess just sat there. "Never mind," sighed Nairyry.
"Wait- I… did you say yesterday that your… queen is carrying eggs now?"
"Yes…" Nairyry's eyes widened, and she gasped. "Oh, no!"
"How many eggs are normally laid?" Jess asked, biting her lip.
"Eggs are soft, at first, and even later teleporting harms them with the cold. They would be stuck here."
"But how many? If there were only one or two…"
"A normal clutch…" Nairyry trailed off, factoring in length and speed of flight and health of her queen. "Thyrath could lay at least fifteen, likely twenty. Or more."
"I suggest we do our best to fix that wing of hers, then," the girl said without embellishment, face open and frank.
000
A little less than two hundred dollars, two and a half hours and two taxi trips later Nairyry looked like a fashion model as she stood in the middle of Jessica's room, looking at herself in a mirror. She was wearing a regular pair of slightly flared black jeans, under which were her old boots, which Jess thought were passable for combat boots. In the lining of her black trench coat, which reached to her ankles she had her knife, which she had refused to keep anywhere but with her.
Her tube-top shirt was dark red, and made more modest by the jacket she wore over it. She also had a pair of the coolest, inexpensive sunglasses that Jess could find. Nairyry looked at herself once more in the mirror. She did not look unlike a character from the front of some of the "totally cool DEE VEE DEEZ" that Jess had shown her she was surprised to see. Even more surprising was that she felt more confident wearing the trench coat.
She liked the change in her appearance, she decided. On the covers of the DEE VEE DEEZ the modern warrior women looked so… so… well, for lack of a better description–
so cool.
They seemed self-confident and able to handle anything. She thought that they could take on an army with just that chill, measured, nearly haughty look behind those dark glasses. Now she was looking at a woman who seemed ready to do the impossible. And she had. She already had.
She had, though admittedly unintentionally, brought a queen dragon of Pern to Earth. No other person would be able to say they had done that.
Nairyry looked back in the mirror and stood tall, proudly defiant of the barrio between worlds. The red of her shirt stood out against the black trench coat, her black jeans and their silvery, embroidered five-pointed stars around the cuffs. The belt was silver, too, to match.
"Like it?" asked Jess, coming into the room with a plate. She grinned. I can't decide if you look like Trinity from THE MATRIX or Electra- never mind," she said seeing Naryry's expression. "Anyway, you look awesome. Better try on the rest so you can tell if you like it. I can still take it back for a refund if something doesn't fit right."
Nairyry nodded and started to pick up the bags again, then stopped and turned back to Jess, taking off her 'shades'. "Jess?"
"Mm?"
"Thank you. I know if must have been expensive, and thanks. I just don't know how to repay you."
Jess bit her lip. "Could you take me flying? Just once?" she burst out, face hopeful.
"With Thyrath? Of course! Jess," and now she came over and took the shorter girl's hands in hers, kneeling so they were on the same level. "If you had not taken me in last night, if you had not helped me understand this strange world, I do not know what I would've done. So thank you," and Jessica was startled to see tears in her eyes, "thank you, so much, from both Thyrath and me."
Then she took up her bag of clothes and went into the bathroom, much humbled by kindness shown to a stranger when she was so far from home.
000
Her second set of clothes, and she could 'mix and match', as Jess called it, was more inconspicuous. It was good, she reflected, that as well as knowing what would blend in on her world Jess knew what was fashionable. Without her help it was likely Nairyry would have come out of the shop in a basketball jersey, a kilt, a Mickey Mouse hat and a pair of flip-flops.
Her skirt, made of blue jean material, fell to mid-shin, showing a pair of blue converse with white socks, of which she had three pair. Pulled over the belt she wore was a green-gray tank top shirt, revealed by a jacket of cloth the same color as one of the light brown drinks she had seen plenty of people drinking from plastic cups. Jess had told her the drink was called a MO–KA, some kind of KOFEE.
She stepped out of the bathroom and presented the outfit to Jess, grinning. The teenager twirled her finger. "Turn around, now." Nairyry did so, then stopped and reached back into the bathroom to retrieve her sunglasses. This time she managed to get them on the right way without help.
"Perfect. You totally look the part of a New Yorker." Jess gave her the double thumbs up, and Nairyry returned them, then returned to the bathroom and put on her jeans, leaving on her converse and tank top, and slid on her black coat.
"Someone's coming, I think," she told Jess as she came out, hearing the elevator doors open on their level.
The click of the key in the door silenced them both. Quickly the teenager shoved her friend in the bathroom and hut the door. "Hide! Don't let him see you!" she hissed, then Nairyry heard her quickly walk to her bedroom door. She listened intently, but all she could hear was the murmur of voices for a while, then a smash of glass, a short, heavy slap and Jess's small cry as she fell to the ground.