Disclaimer: I don't own the world of Pern. I do, however own many of the characters in this story.
A Hatchling cracks its shell and turns;
Now which its one to Impress it discerns.
Chapter Four: Fire Lizard
It was a long walk. Olyira felt partially drawn to B'gaz and partially repelled from him through the day, and she dreaded the night, and what it might inspire the blue rider to do. But as the moons climbed high and they spread their furs onto the sand he showed no desire to rush her, for which the Nightrider was grateful.
She was nowhere near ready to let their relationship reach that level, but she could not deny the thrill that she felt when B'gaz held and kissed her. When they were lying in their furs the Weyrlingmaster looked over at her, and she met his gaze with a smile to which he responded.
Gently, still as if afraid she might run away, he put his hand under her chin and brought himself close enough to kiss her, long, tenderly and as gently as if she could break at any time. She trembled with the sweetness of the kiss, and remained motionless.
"Goodnight," he whispered as he released her, and she managed to smile and nod at him.
000
In the morning he woke her with a kiss; already packed up his own things, he helped her with her own things and they continued on their search for fire lizard eggs. It was nearly noon when two things happened simultaneously.
First, they heard a snap and the squeal of a runnerbeast in pain. Second, B'gaz spotted a clutch of fire-lizard eggs in the sand.
"I'll go check on what that was," the blue rider said, pointing to where they could still hear an animal thudding around in pain, "and you take care of those," he said, gesturing now at the mound of sand.
Olyira nodded with a smile and knelt to begin rooting at the sand gingerly. She heard the man leave and walk out in search of the injured beast. As she felt the first of the eggshells, she knew something was not right. The shell was moving.
As she uncovered more moving eggshells, she realized that all was right. A hatching!
"B'gaz! They're hatching!" she cried, frantic that they might die, for there was no source of food near. Then she heard the man trotting back, and saw him pulling along a small, dead runnerbeast, its throat cut and on leg twisted askew. He pulled the undersized animal over and pealed away the skin from the leg.
"Here- take some meat. Grab the one you want, and feed it. Talk to it. Tell it how much you love it and want it to stay with you." B'gaz rattled off instructions until the first shell cracked. Then he saw the glistening head and rocked back on his heels. "Let's let them all hatch; that way you can decide which one you want easier," he suggested, and Olyira nodded, transfixed on the scene before her.
At last there were only a three eggs left, none of them rocking, so she looked in the mass of lizards feasting on the dead runnerbeast. She saw a pathetic golden form a reached hesitantly out, gently but firmly grasping the queen lizard and stuffing the meat that she still held in her hand into the little creatures' mouth. It took the queen some time to get the large piece down her throat, and by the time she was done Olyira had another piece ready and was cutting more off the runner; B'gaz helped by sending off the wild hatchlings and slicing when he could.
Finally, the younger of the two dragonriders straitened up, the queen half asleep in her arms, and looked at B'gaz. "Why didn't you try to Impress like I did? But thank you for helping," she added hastily.
"Great shells! I've already got my Sloy back at the Weyr. One's quite enough for me," he told her with a grin, and Olyira had to smile back at him.
By now the wild fire-lizards had dispersed, and they turned back to begin the march back to Vuith.
000
They found no eggs at either of the next to beaches, but at their sixth beach they found a queen still laying her clutch. Olyra and B'gaz crept away from her and marked the spot in their minds for collecting the clutch later on. At the seventh beach they found another clutch, and there were two at the eighth. By then they were exhausted from tramping up and down the beaches.
All told, when the got back from the eighth beach and reported to the Weyrleader and Weyrwoman they had a grand total of one Impressed queen for Olyra, one clutch that would be checked on frequently until judged ready for taking, another that could be gathered in two sevendays and four already-collected clutches amounting to a total of ninety-one fire lizard eggs ready to be dispersed and another fifty-eight that would be ready after they were hard enough to move.
The pair was so successful that the Weyrleaders sent them out at the same time next Turn, with their own lizards trained to find the clutches of others, when Olyira and Vuith were not exhausted from their fight against Thread at night.
Over the Turn Vuith had grown into a strong, fine beast. The weyrfolk discovered that they and their riders had a particular talent: they were not just more active during the day, but the joking 'nocturnal' habits they had been born with actually were nocturnal activity. The Nightdragons and Nightriders were most useful for fighting Thread that Fell at night or in the late evening. Now that, as the Red Star had been altered in its course, Thread was falling many times at night, this became a necessity well appreciated.
Weyrwoman Aeontellai and Weyrleader Th'nayoin recognized the potential in the abilities of the Nightdragons and Nightriders, and the abnormal dragons and riders were ordered to fight only at night. This was not the most easy of jobs, for, as the Red Star had been pushed out of orbit, Thread was falling more a night than it had ever been before, and so the nocturnal dragons and their riders, who were converted to being nocturnal because of their dragon's habits, fought at least once every sevenday, and sometimes up to three or four times a week.
At least the colorful dragons had help; the watch-whers assisted them whenever they could, and were a great asset to the team. A Turn passed, and then others.
Olyira found that she had little time during the day to spend with B'gaz, who had resigned his post as Weyrlingmaster to free up as much of his time as possible to be with her.
They still found clutches, but if Thread Fell, they had to time it to get there in time to be able to drop off the blue rider, and it began to take a toll on Olyira. Vuith, as all dragons, was immune to the time-paradox stress that affected her rider.
But nothing could keep them from aging as the long Turns went by.
