A/n: Still owning nothing but my creative genius, the creations of that amazing genius, and the poor, nameless red stuffed dragon.
First Threadfall
(Three months after First Flight)
Months of training, practicing, running errands and escort duty, bringing firestone to the more experienced riders during a Fall, and it was all going to pay off. They were finally going to face the one test that would forever cement them as dragonriders. The day to fight Thread was here.
Usually, momentous occasions such as the day she Impressed Terranth or their maiden flight, would have set K'dra's stomach in a twisting ball of knots. But today, as she pulled on the protective riding gear, she was calm, focused, clear-minded. Even relaxed. Well, not entirely relaxed, but close enough.
"Hello, dragon-love," K'dra greeted her dragon, who was just as calm as her rider, though K'dra could detect a tightly controlled excitement through the mental link they shared.
K'dra nodded in approval. Terranth gave a reply, the unusual alertness to her eyes fading slightly as they changed to the colors showing love and adoration.
Rider and dragon renewed their vows of mutual love and affection before K'dra went over Terranth and all the equipment one last time.
"All right then. Everything is okay. I'll be back after breakfast."
Terranth bobbed her glistening emerald head up and down in acknowledgement.
Since her weyr was one of the earlier ones, it was a little closer to the ground with a set of steps to go down, making it easier for those who didn't have a dragon to reach the weyr.
K'dra made her way down the stairs and across the Bowl to the kitchen, where riders had already gathered to eat. She greeted friends and acquaintances, grabbing a bowl and waiting in line for the hot porridge. The smell made K'dra's stomach to grumble and her mouth to water.
Candy was Thread's End Weyr's headwoman and took personal charge of handing out food to the riders when Thread fall was due. Now she smiled at the rookie rider as she ladled the thick cereal in K'dra's bowl.
"Are you nervous, K'dra?" she asked kindly, offering some fresh-baked bread.
"A little, but I'm trying to stay focused," K'dra replied with an ease that surprised herself. Since when had she come to act as if she'd flown a Fall before?
"First Fall's always the worst," Candy responded, unfazed as ever. "Never knew a rider who wasn't even a little nervous."
K'dra murmured her thanks and grabbed a spare table. Her heart warmed as veteran riders smiled at her in a camaraderie that they never had before. K'dra basked in the great feeling it provoked. She was green Terranth's rider.
K'dra made herself not to eat fast, taking her time to finish her meal off with some nice, hot klah, the spicy cinnamon taste soothing as it went down. She arose and took her empty dishes up to a drudge to wash before leaving the kitchens.
She didn't see S'na or Et'an anywhere, or their dragons.
Tilanth says Et'an is dressing and Shrith says S'na is buckling on her riding straps.
Thank you, dragon-love. Whose riding straps, hers or Shrith's? K'dra thought in amusement as she passed the last step into her weyr.
Terranth gave an amused snort and waited patiently as K'dra once more double-checked the equipment: tightening a strap here, loosening one that was too tight, and gathering up firestone sacks to fill.
"Let's fill these sacks and get you chewing 'stone," she said as she mounted and strapped in. Riders were already filling their sacks and some wing leaders were positioning their wings.
"Riding your first Fall I see," one of the weyrfolk called out as he helped K'dra to fill her sacks and to tie them on Terranth.
"Yep. We're going to flame that blasted menace out of the sky."
Terranth raised her head, giving an affirming sound off and was answered with a chorus of answering bugles from the other dragons. K'dra grinned at the weyrman, affectionately slapping Terranth's soft neck.
"Nothing like a good pep talk before the Main Event," she remarked, and the weyrman answered her with a grin.
"Good Fall, green rider."
He bowed low to Terranth and K'dra before moving on to help another rider.
He is nice, Terranth commented, one eye looking back to her rider.
K'dra chuckled. Ever since, R'ahvin, bronze Xenith's rider from Halcyon Weyr had expressed an interest in her, compounded by S'na's experiences with the male half, Terranth had gradually become more interested in the intimate side of human relationships.
Matchmaking again, dragon-love?
S'na was with blue Kittith's rider in his weyr last night, Terranth went on, turning her head to fully look at K'dra.
"What S'na and K'tal do is their business. If she chooses to spend a night in his weyr, in his bed, that is up to them."
Terranth gave a dragon-sized snort and raised her head to look behind her.
S'na and Shrith come. So does Kittith.
K'dra turned to see her honey-blond friend land nearby, Shrith's jungle-green hide shining in the dawn's early light. S'na looked completely relaxed and incredibly satisfied. She exchanged a look with K'tal, blue Kittith's rider, before dismounting to fill her sacks up.
"Good morning, S'na, Shrith," K'dra called in greeting. "And you as well, K'tal, Kittith."
"It is a good morning," S'na exclaimed, her bubbly nature not quite contained.
She looked excited as well. K'tal returned her greeting and he and S'na filled their sacks together, almost ignoring K'dra. That kind of accidental exclusion kind of stung, but she took it all in stride, telling herself it was not their fault they liked each other.
I will never ignore you, Terranth remarked, nudging her rider with her nose, as always sensitive to any change in her rider's emotions.
"I know."
I don't ignore you either, Shrith informed her rider's friend.
I know that, and I'm thankful. I try not to ignore you either, Shrith.
Tilanth and Et'an come, the two greens chimed in chorus, both greeting their friends warmly. There was a special bond between the three, most likely due to all the time their riders spent together.
The large brown dragon came to land gracefully by Terranth, his dark coloring almost bronze in places. He was up and raring to go, greeting Terranth and K'dra and Shrith, to which Terranth informed her rider of.
"Hey, you two," K'dra greeted them, and was rewarded by Et'an's dazzling smile.
"Hey yourself."
He looked past them to S'na and K'tal, his smile turning to a smirk as he turned his sparkling gaze back to K'dra, laughter suppressed.
"Ignoring you?"
He casually jumped down, gave Shrith a pat on the rump and a friendly grin, and began loading his firestone sacks.
"Yeah."
They both looked at each other and laughed, any tension and hurt feelings now gone.
"I was wondering when K'tal was going to make his move," Et'an mused. "He is her senior by several years and had his eye on her for quite some time."
"Apparently it was just recently. Terranth told me that Shrith said they were in his weyr together last night. And they promptly forgot I was here after they landed together."
"You are so ignored, you poor baby," Et'an teased and finished tying down the heavy sacks. Just then R'ahvin appeared before them, all ready to ride Fall.
"You all ready?" While he gave the impression of being at ease, the bronze rider was also all business and the two rookies treated him with the same manner.
"Yes, sir, we are," Et'an answered. K'dra also voiced her affirmative. R'ahvin nodded in approval.
"Good. You two are flying in my wing today. Head up toward the Rim, Xenith will give instructions to your dragons." Then he was gone down the line, telling other members of his wing the same thing.
K'dra and Et'an mounted up, and took off toward their assigned wing positions on the Rim. They waited as R'ahvin and Xenith came up to take position, and the Weyrleaders take point on the recently installed Star Stones. The order came to give the dragons firestone.
The crunching sound of hundreds of dragons chewing the stone echoed all across the Weyr, where all fighting dragons prepared to flame. All riders mounted up and waited for the signal to lift off and go between. The signal came just a few heartbeats later.
The icy cold of between went straight to her bones, and K'dra found the absolute nothingness unnerving as always.
I am here, Terranth soothed and they suddenly burst in the air above Sonnette's Dawn Hold.
All wings positioned themselves and were ready, still getting as much firestone as they could. All faced the northeast where Thread was supposed to fall.
Terranth suddenly shivered in excitement, and K'dra caught it as she too saw her first glimpse of the ancient enemy. Thread was coming!
The silvery haze shimmered in the early morning light, all creatures still as if holding their breath until the danger had passed.
Wait. Wait. NOW!
The signal was given and hundreds of dragons leapt with an almost fanatical drive to flame the dangerous thread.
K'dra crouched forward, her body moving with every twist and turn Terranth made.
More stone! Terranth turned her head and deftly caught the rock K'dra passed to her, all the practice and routine allowing the exchange to go smoothly.
For the next two and a half hours, Terranth dived, twisted, and wheeled about to char the silvery strands. The words of the ancient song rang in her head:
Wheel and turn
Or bleed and burn.
Fly between
Blue and Green.
Soar, dive down
Bronze and Brown.
Dragonmen must fly
When Threads are in the sky.
Just as K'dra moved forward to toss Terranth some more stone, an unexpected updraft shoved them right in a collision course with a patch of Thread blown off course by a downdraft from another dragon's wings.
K'dra was aware then only of a white-hot pain, as her back and shoulders felt afire. Her flesh felt as if it were being eaten alive, which in a sense was what was happening. Vaguely, K'dra could sense two large bodies above her before a merciful blast of intense cold hit her as Terranth jumped between.
Most of the Thread crumbled off and then warm air pelted her face as they soared above the Weyr. It also thawed her scoring, which began to throb unmercifully.
We are at the Weyr, Terranth crooned, after trumpeting to the watch-dragon her name and reason for leaving Threadfall. Her anxiety and concern was very apparent and that mental contact was the only thing that kept K'dra from falling unconscious.
Terranth backwinged to land as gently as possible, but it still jarred K'dra's wounds afresh, making her feel nauseous. She wasn't aware of the hands rushing to undo her from her dragon.
"I think I'm going to faint," she informed no one in particular, and passed out into sweet oblivion.
Dulled pain brought K'dra back to awareness. She let out a small groan and tried to move her arm, which felt like it was asleep. Pain erupted, now in its full glory, and dissuaded her from moving anything else.
"Don't try to move," a soothing voice reached her ears, and it was echoed in her mind by Terranth, worried and relieved that K'dra was finally awake.
K'dra opened her eyes to a room lit by soft glows, and it took her a moment to recognize her own weyr. Then she recognized who her caretaker was.
"Candy?" Her voice cracked horribly and her throat felt parched. Candy carefully gave her some water and gently pushed K'dra back on her pillow.
"I know you want to know what happened and how Terranth is, and how bad you were scored, but all in good time. For now, we need to get something in you and then douse you with some numbweed. The other batch is beginning to wear off I believe."
Candy moved as she spoke, filling another cup with a thick, steamy stew. K'dra faintly smelled pork and her stomach suddenly came alive with a loud rumble. She realized that she hadn't eaten breakfast in about four hours.
Seven. You were out a long seven hours, Terranth informed her, not without some worry.
Seven? K'dra frowned. How could I be out seven hours?
"Don't try to talk K'dra." Candy moved to the front of the sleeping couch and helped K'dra sit back up. She then proceeded to feed her.
"I see Terranth got in touch with you. Yes, you were out for about five hours. We had to give you a great amount of numbweed for your scoring and it was a good thing you were unconscious through the whole thing. Though you did have us worried being out for as long as you did, but the dragons and little firelizard assured us you were only asleep. Terranth wouldn't let you go."
Terranth saw fit to interject then that she, K'dra, had been out way too long and had her, Terranth, very worried. She should have moved faster to avoid the patch of Thread.
You or me dragon-love?
"Was it bad?" K'dra really wished her voice didn't crack so much. It sounded as abused as she felt.
"I told you not to talk. You were scored pretty well. Your entire back and shoulders, nothing too deep, only a graze and nothing deeper than skin level, but your left shoulder blade took the brunt of the scoring. Went right to the bone. That's the reason we had to douse you with so much numbweed. For the rest of your back, it should be like a sunburn, and you should be okay."
The thick stew was now gone and K'dra's stomach rumbled no more. She sighed.
"All right, now you're going to have to roll over on your stomach so I can clean your wounds, and apply fresh numbweed and bandages. Watch your shoulder, now."
Relief came in the form of the awful smelling numbweed, and immediately her entire back felt oddly disconnected and she no longer felt any pain. K'dra gave another sigh, this one in relief. Candy applied the numbweed generously, especially over her left shoulder.
"How long will I be grounded?"
Candy paused to gather more numbweed before she answered.
"I would say you won't be able to fight Thread for at least a month or six seven-days."
"A month?"
There was no keeping the dismay out of her voice. Being a true dragonrider fighting Thread for the first time and she gets nailed out of commission for a month.
"Don't get so bent out of shape, K'dra. You'll do better next time, and learn from this experience. Personally, I think if you or your dragon is injured the first time out you are more cautious and the better rider for it than those arrogant youngsters who weren't touched. It'll make you and your dragon more careful."
Candy finished slathering the numbweed, and then started putting on a dressing for her left shoulder. That's when K'dra became aware of the fact that her clothes were off. Candy smiled as she guessed K'dra's train of thought.
"We had to cut the remains of your clothes off in order to tend your wounds." There was amusement in Candy's voice. "You have a really nice figure. I don't know why you want to hide it. The male riders would certainly appreciate it. And some of the other female riders I imagine."
It took all of K'dra's skills not to blush. It was well know in the Weyr that K'dra was very modest and chose clothes carefully that would not show too much, only enhance her figure. Candy smiled kindly toward her.
"Don't worry, K'dra. I won't let anyone come up with you indecent. Except maybe, S'na. And you all have bathed together often enough with the other females it's not like she hasn't seen any of it before."
Candy finished the job, and then helped K'dra lie back down.
There, now you are all better.
Thanks, dragon-love. Next time I'll duck faster.
You shouldn't have had to duck! The emerald dragon protested, full of regret and sorrow.
Don't berate yourself. Let's not blame anyone.
Candy covered K'dra so that only her head, shoulders, and arms showed above the blanket hide.
"You really should go to sleep, but you have some friends who have been waiting for five very anxious hours to see you are personally all right even though they had their dragons pick poor Terranth's brain clean for news of how you are."
K'dra didn't have time to do more than quirk an eyebrow before her friends came in.
S'na immediately plastered herself to K'dra's right side, her expression so contrite, and there was evidence of tears on her face. Et'an just looked very relieved as he moved to her other side.
To her surprise, R'ahvin and K'tal also came in and gave her sheepish smiles.
"I am so sorry, K'dra!" S'na wailed, new tears starting in her eyes.
"Why should you be sorry? You weren't the one who was scored."
"I should have been looking out for you instead of…"
"Instead of following your orders and staying with your wing?" K'dra accurately guessed, though she was surer that S'na was thinking of K'tal.
S'na became even more contrite as she nodded yes.
"S'na, listen to me. This isn't your fault. So don't beat yourself up the head with it."
"But…"
"But nothing. If you have to blame something or someone blame me. For not ducking faster, or Terranth for not knowing how to deal with unexpected updrafts, or Thread for eating anything not stone or metal. It is not your fault."
K'dra held S'na's gaze until she agreed. K'tal gave a supporting smile and that seemed to ease most of S'na's tension. Then she turned her stern gaze to Et'an.
"That goes for you, too."
Et'an smiled.
"I know that. Doesn't mean I don't feel bad about you getting scored. I thought Tilanth and I got all the Thread, we didn't know you were under us."
"He's right," R'ahvin spoke up, having stayed quiet. "Et'an and Tilanth saw that updraft blow you straight into that patch of Thread as another downdraft put it on an intercept course with you. We both tried to sear as much as possible and charred the worst of it, but you still got it pretty good."
K'dra absorbed that. Now that she remembered, she could recall the vague feeling of the two dragon's presence through her pain. She didn't know it had been Tilanth and Xenith.
"Thank you. Both of you."
Candy came in from the bathing room and sternly addressed the visitors.
"That's enough now. She needs to rest before that numbweed fades, so say good-bye."
She made shooing motions, and the other riders were quick to go.
"I hope you get better soon, K'dra," K'tal told her before waiting for S'na.
"Thanks, K'tal."
S'na was next.
"I'll check on you later," she promised and then she went left with K'tal.
"Good-bye, K'dra," Et'an said, giving her had a squeeze and a kiss on the forehead. R'ahvin lingered a bit, though he could see K'dra was tiring a little. He suspected Candy might have put something other than meat and spices in the stew.
"Are you going to be okay?" he asked, ignoring the vexed look Candy cast his way as she went back to arrange things in the bathing chamber.
"Yes. It was nice of you to ask."
R'ahvin just nodded.
"Et'an, S'na, me, and even K'tal helped to give Terranth a bath so the firestone stink is out of her hide."
"You did?"
K'dra was touched by this act of kindness and how much her friends cared about her. She was especially touched that S'na, who finally found a man she would willingly become weyrmated to, had helped.
And R'ahvin. He was a bronze rider, not even from this Weyr, yet he helped give her dragon a bath when he could be taking care of his own dragon or enjoying the company of one of the women in the Lower Caverns.
"Yes. Surprised?" R'ahvin's grin was playful and mischievous, reaching into his beautiful sea-green eyes.
"Well, yeah. I didn't think you would have done that for a mere acquaintance."
For some reason, K'dra felt kind of awkward. R'ahvin's smile grew and he smirked.
"I wouldn't have for a mere acquaintance, but you're a very good acquaintance whom I would like to call a friend."
R'ahvin's expression became a little more intense and his expression almost was vulnerable.
Guess he's not used to asking girls to be his friend, K'dra thought as she cast about to find an answer.
"Are you sure a bronze rider would want a female green rider for a friend?"
"Absolutely. Better than a male green rider. People would talk."
K'dra laughed though it hurt, and something passed between them then, something K'dra wasn't sure she could ever understand or ever explain entirely. She just knew that she had gained something precious. She smiled.
"Thank you, again. For charring that patch of Thread, for washing Terranth, for wanting to be my friend. Thanks."
"You're very welcome."
R'ahvin tilted his head forward in a little bow of acknowledgement. He turned to go, but then stopped. "By the way, I didn't know you had a firelizard."
K'dra frowned in confusion.
"I don't."
"You mean that bronze fellow above you isn't yours?"
K'dra turned her neck to see Mako perched above her headrest. He gave a soft peep and rubbed his little head and neck against her cheek, chittering his relief.
"What in the world? How did Gavin know...?" K'dra trailed off as Terranth spoke.
He was charring Thread above his hold. He recognized us and saw what happened and reported it. HE sent him here to help take care of you.
The emphasis on the last 'he' told K'dra she was talking about her brother, Gavin.
"Who's Gavin?" R'ahvin politely asked. K'dra had forgot he was there.
"Gavin is my oldest brother. He lives in Sonnette's Dawn Hold with his wife and twin children. Mako, this little guy here, belongs to him."
K'dra gave Mako an affectionate scratch on the closest eyeridge. He peeped in satisfaction and started chattering what seemed to be a reproof. K'dra and R'ahvin chuckled.
"Oh. He helped Candy take care of you and gave an extra hand in scrubbing Terranth down."
"Did he now?"
K'dra smiled at the little 'dragon in miniature.' He hummed with pride at his accomplishments.
He seems very pleased with himself, Terranth remarked, sounding amused.
"Something tells me I might get a visit from my family sooner than I thought, though I'm surprised they haven't come already."
A yawn popped out unbidden before K'dra could stop it.
"I best be leaving. Take care of yourself and get some sleep. I'll be back sometime tomorrow, I think. Bye, K'dra."
"Bye, R'ahvin."
K'dra listened to the sound of his footsteps as he left her weyr, the scrape of claws on stone, and the sound of rushing air from Xenith's powerful wings as he left the ledge. Mako gave an inquiring cheep, and K'dra regarded him.
"So, you helped bathe Terranth, huh? And take care of me? I appreciate that. Why don't you go to Gavin and tell him I'm all right okay?"
K'dra envisioned Gavin sitting at his chair by the window of his house and projected that to the little lizard.
"Go to Gavin," she repeated a little more firmly.
Mako gave one last peep good-bye, and then he left, supposedly to Gavin. With firelizards, one can never tell.
You need sleep now, Terranth murmured, settling herself down, neck extended so her head was as close to K'dra as physically possible, reaching past the skins that separated the sleeping chamber from the dragon's weyr.
I think I will, K'dra responded as she moved to a more comfortable sleeping position, trying not to move her left shoulder so much.
Good night.
K'dra closed her eyes, falling asleep quickly. Candy stood in the shadows, regarding her sleeping patient for a few moments before gathering her supplies and leaving.