Disclaimer: I don't own the world of Pern. I do, however own many of the characters in this story.

A sudden knock at the door-

'Come, let us seek lizard-lore!'

Says the dragonrider

'Open the door wider!'

Chapter Two: At the Door

Olyira woke suddenly, aware of a fierce hunger- Vuith's, not her own. The rider rose, somewhat startled, to find that she was not in the Weyrling barracks, and felt panic rise until Vuith reminded her, between complaints of hunger, that she was in the new quarters for herself and her dragon. Their permanent quarters.

"Let's get you fed," the young dragonrider said to her dragon as she slapped the brilliant scarlet hide affectionately, and yawned. It was still strange to sleep during the light hours and wake at dusk, the time it was now, she reflected. As Olyira swung up onto her still-slightly-growing dragon's neck, she yawned again. While the great scarlet dragon unfurled her vast wings and dropped lightly off the cliff, her rider thought back to the previous dusk.

"You know, I think both of you are ready to move to your permanent weyr," the reasonably young Weyrlingmaster, B'gaz, told Olyira as he gave Vuith's wing a last pat before letting her fold it to her backbone again. Both the dragon and her rider responded with thankful and appreciative noises, though they were very different from each.

"I see no reason for you to delay any longer, though she'll still grow a little more." He grinned as the young woman groaned; she wondered how she would keep up with all the oiling and cleaning she needed to do for her wonderful red-hided companion. "In fact, I'll suggest to Weyrleader Th'nayoin that you fly in the next Threadfall.

"Oh, would you really?" asked Olyira excitedly as Vuith made a surprised and eager noise of her own?

"I will. And the rest of you Nightdragons as well." The red dragonrider saw again the strange expression pass over his face as he looked at her, but she ignored it "But now I must tell the other new riders," he said and beckoned to his blue. "Well," he amended, stroking his dragons' azure hide when he set his forearm next to his rider to make mounting easier. "Zulbath and I must tell them."

The younger dragonrider looked up at the blue, surprised to see that her red Vuith was nearly his size, and nodded farewell and thanks to B'gaz. She draped an arm around her dragon's leg.

Now Olyira wondered just what had been in B'gaz's eyes then. Landing! Vuith told her rider in warning just as the red dragon settled neatly on a ledge, and her rider slipped off with ease. "Now go eat, dear. And not too much!" Olyira said affectionately to her life-long friend.

000

"Rider Olyira?" a voice called tentatively through the door.

"Yes?" the red rider replied, straightening up from her crouch; she had been oiling a rough patch on her dragons' tail. Vuith chirped. It is B'gaz, she said in surprise.

"B'gaz?" asked Olyira in surprise.

"Yes," the man replied in kind. "How- ah." He glanced at the bronze fire-lizard that clung to his shoulder then at Vuith's head, which was stuck through the door to her weyr, and shook his head "Anyway, Olyira, the Weyrleader has informed me that you and the rest of the Nightdragons and Nightriders may fly Thread tomorrow. Fall is schedualed to be just about at sunrise, so you and the rest of the nocturnal dragons should be a great asset to- oh!"

In her happiness at at last being able to fight Thread, of finally proving once and for all to Pern that the Nightdragons were true dragons, Olyira had impulsivly flung her arms around the neck of the Weyrlingmaster and given him a kiss on the cheek.

"Oh, thank you, B'gaz! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she cried. "Thank you so much!"

A face matching Vuith's hide gave the scarcely older dragonrider an interesting look when the Nightrider released him, grinning broadly in a half-apologetic sort of way. Both of them ignored the outraged shrieks of his little bronze fire-lizard.

He cleared his throat. Stuffed hands that trembled into his wher-hide jacket pockets, then looked up at the chattering lizard, who was circling them from the air.

"And, thanks to this funny little one, I remembered the other thing I was to tell you- that you and I are to go to certain beaches that have been reported as promising in the past and find fire-lizard clutches. We are to either mark them for Nais Weyr if they are to soft to be moved, or to bring them back here directly if they wer anywhere near hatching hardness." he told her. "Also, we are given leave to stay out overnight, several if necicary. Our Weyrleader has also said that if there is no chance of getting a clutch back here before it is to hatch, that we may bring meat scraps to Impress ourselves."

"Truly?" asked Olyira, astonished.

"Yes," the Weyrling master replied, and grinned. "We are to go at noon and do most of our actual raiding just at dusk, so queens will not be on the alert. Your dragon is going to be more active than my Zulbath. In fact, as I have proved the dragonrider most willing to go on another's dragon, Zulbath is to stay behind while I come with you."

"Oh, shards- I know you hat to leave him. You don't realy have to, do you?" she protested.

"Neither my dragon nor I are in any way opposed to this venture." He told her. "I shall come be with my things –be sure to get yours tonight or tomorrow– around midafternoon."

And that finalized it.