Disclaimer: I don't own the world of Pern. I do, however own many of the characters in this story.
Drummer, beat, and piper, blow
Harper, strike, and soldier go;
Free the flame and sear the grasses
'Till the dawning Red Star passes
Chapter Three: Weyr Rescue
The food and last glows finally ran out after two days and nights in the cavern. Slowly, carefully, she moved the boulder over her 'look-hole' off, and took a glance round. Seeing no one, she traversed the damp tunnel and walked back to the Hold.
It struck her that she needed fresh meat for the fire lizards when they hatched, and she added that to the list of things to snitch from the kitchen; meat enough to sedate four hungry fire lizards, bread enough for several days, fishrolls for several days and assorted dishes and containers to keep her food in.
Entering by the window she had exited by, she crept to the kitchen and took her items, stowing them silently in a carisack she snitched from the wall.
The next day, Yria woke to the sound of something, a vibrating; opening her eyes she found that there were three fully-grown fire lizards sitting by her egg basket- a queen, a blue and two bronzes. They were humming, and staring intently at the basket. Trying not to scare them off, the girl sat up, pulled the whole basket toward her and carefully took out all but one blanket; the eggs were rocking!
One already had a crack in it; a talon was sticking out. All at once, the egg split and a tiny bronze fire lizard cried out his longing for food. Suddenly the girl moved and grabbed the meat, and the fire lizard; she talked to him and fed him at the same time and did the same to each of the others; after the bronze a brown hatched, then a golden queen and another brown.
After an exhausting round of feeding and talking, Yria and the four young fire lizards (the adults had disappeared between sometime) curled up to sleep out the rest of the night.
In the early, misty morning, Yria and the fire lizards went out and own the beach to gather spiderclaws, and for the small fair of miniature dragons rockmites and fingertails. She spotted another queen, some greens and a few browns, bronzes and blues as they worked; when she judged the holder folk would be coming out soon, she hurried back to her cave with the marvelous four fire lizards she had Impressed.
000
As the next sevenday went by, Yria was hard pressed to supply the needs of two rapidly growing browns, a queen and a bronze fire lizard; not to mention herself. She also needed oil.
Almost every third night she trooped the long way back to Seawatch, took what she needed, withing reason so they would'nt suspect anything was gone and then tiredly limped back to her cavern. She forbade her new friends to come with her on these occasions, for she knew that they would likely rouse the holds' tame beasts.
In particular, the small brown she had decided to call Waveskipper loved to open jars of any kind, while bronze Shaon ate whatever Waveskipper left. Tayila, the golden queen, had a preference for klah, and larger brown Falie tended to break any crockery available. The time the former holder-girl had brought them, she had discovered their formidable talents regarding human kitchen items.
And there was Threadfall.
Yria stayed near her cave-house always; with Thread falling out of the patterns it had kept for many Turns she never knew when she would need to race for her shelter. Then, a little over two sevendays after the hatching, Yria failed to be on the alert.
The tall girl walked, a golden fire lizard on her shoulder, two browns playing a chasing game and a bronze gliding next to her, far past where she ordinarily roamed. She thought about what she might be missing, or escaping, by not being in the hold, and did not hear anything, which was exactly what was wrong.
Suddenly, all four of her friends cried out, eyes whirling, and took flight, startling Yria. "Oh, Shards, Tayila! Shaon, Falie! Waveskipper, get back here!" she called crossly after them. They came, almost bowling her over. The smaller brown Waveskipper and the queen sent her images of-
Threadfall.
She whirled, almost losing her balance, and… there. On the horizon. A speck of silver. "Shells," she whispered, then broke into a dash for her little cavern, trailing squeaking fire lizards.
No matter how hard she ran, whenever she caught a glimpse of the menace that had plagued her world for millennia, leading edge was closer. She could see the dragons now, flaming the silver strands out of the sky. Then, in a burst of fire-stone reek, a dragon materialized from between and landed beside her.
The glistening green wings remained spread out as the rider cried out to her. "Get on girl, we can't waste time!" His words cut through Yria's paralysis, and she leapt up the huge forelimb, was grasped and pulled up to sit behind the rider-
and was aloft a-dragonback. "We're going between, now! Don't be scared- just hold on tight and cough three times! I'm taking you to Nais Weyr!"
Then it was cold, so cold that she almost forgot the coughs. One… two… three… then they were over Nais, the dragon was landing and before she could gasp her thanks to the green rider or dragon, she was on the ground, being helped to a chair by a woman with a kind face.
"Well, what a sight you are to be sure, girl! Look just as bad as Menoly did when T'gran and Branth rescued her, though to be sure her feet were much worse than yours. You have a good pair of boots, to be sure, and- oh!" The blond woman started as Tayila then Shaon popped up behind her.
"I- I'm sorry," apologized Yria. "I'll tell 'em to go away…" Which she did, though as soon as they were gone, Falie appeared. "No, you too. Scat!" she said firmly.
"Don't tell me you have three lizards! That's mighty many for one child; though Menoly had that three-fold." the woman added. "Oh," she said as Waveskipper materialized over her head. "Four, is it? My word. Any more coming?" she teased the rescuee.
"Well, unless you can Impress a whole fair, even when they're adults and you rarely see them, no." Yria told the woman, who chuckled. "I'm… Calitryi," she added, using a fake name so the woman would not know who she was, or from where she came. "Or Caty. That's easier to use."
"Welcome to Benden Weyr, Caty. I'm kitchen help; you can call me Teatathsonly, or for less of a mouthful, Teal. Now, I expect that your Hold would be worried, so we'll send a sweep rider to tell them you've been safely-" Teatathsonly started, but 'Caty' shook her head.
"No- no, I'm fine. You don't need to trouble."
"Are you sure?" Teal asked concernedly.
Eventually, Yria convinced her that she was fine; she could tell them herself when she got back to Seawatch. Maybe she could even stay for a while? She was a good cook, and she could help Teal in the kitchens. It was true she knew mainly fish recipes, but she knew a couple of ways to cook wherry that she believed were unique to her Hold and the Weyr might like.
Finally, Teal doused her with felis juice, and Yria fell asleep.