Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Anne McCaffrey…but then, we already knew that, right?
Chapter Two: Hatching
8.2.198
6th Interval
The humming began just after noon, a deep rumbling that permeated the entirety of Telgar Weyr. For a brief instant everyone in the bowl froze, and then burst into action. Candidates rushed to the barracks to change into the traditional white robes and troop to the Hatching sands to await their potential lifemates. The Weyrlingmaster and his assistants started slaughtering herdbeasts and chopping meat for the dragonets soon to hatch. Everyone else rushed for the Hatching sands, jockeying to find the best vantage point to view the upcoming event. It was an important moment for the entire Weyr, since the first queen egg in more than ten Turns would be Hatching. Not only that, but it was the largest clutch the Weyr had seen in the entire 6th Interval. Forty eggs plus the queen made forty-one total, a tangible sign of the end of the Interval and the upcoming Pass. The Hatching represented both the continuing hopes of the Weyr and the inevitability of the return of Thread in a few Turns' time.
The entire Weyr was waiting in great anticipation for the event and everyone wanted to have the best seat available. Everyone, that is, except Carima. As soon as she felt the deep humming in her bones she retreated to the kitchens, remarkably empty of the usual hustle and clutter. Only a few drudges remained under direction of Gareena, the elderly headwoman who was in charge of preparing the Hatching feast.
Carima gratefully threw all her energy into the feast effort. Normally she would be up in the stands cheering for Elias, but she didn't think she could bear to watch this Hatching. As long as she was safely in the kitchens, she could avoid tantalizing thoughts of "what if"—but if she came face to face with the reality of the Hatching, her self-imposed stoicism might crack along with the dragon shells.
"Carima? What are you doing here still?" Galeena walked over to Carima and pushed a strand of her nearly white hair out of her eyes. "Shouldn't you be up in the stands by now? The Hatching should be starting any minute!"
"I know," Carima said, still kneading the pastry batter in front of her, "but I thought I'd stay down here and help you with the feast. I've seen so many Hatchings, and it would be good for me to learn about the other side of things."
"You spend all your time dealing with the 'other side of things,' young lady," Galeena said, picking up a wooden spoon with her wrinkled hand. "Every Hatching is unique and I won't have you miss one. Besides, your friend Elias might never forgive you if you miss her Impression." Like many in the Weyr, Galeena was thoroughly convinced their own Weyrbred girl would beat out the Hold and Craft girls that had been brought in for the Hatching. Now Galeena waved the spoon threateningly and smacked Carima lightly on the arm. "I won't hear any excuses. Go now!"
Carima knew better than to fight with the headwoman. She might have been getting old, but she had lost none of her authority and determination.
Moving quickly, Carima made her way to the Hatching grounds, where the humming had swelled to a nearly unbearable pitch. She expected to see dozens of shells littering the ground and glistening dragonets searching for their lifemates, but instead every shell was still intact and the candidates were settled around the eggs of their choice, with the girls gathered near the largest of all, the shining golden orb that housed the queen.
It was strange. Normally when the dragons started humming the Hatching began soon after. All the seats lowest to the sands were taken and Carima found herself on the upper rim of the grounds. She would be too far away to see the looks of wonder and awe on the candidates faces when they Impressed, or hear them cry out their dragons' names, but at least she would be able to see everything as it happened.
Forty-one eggs. The last clutch Linneth had laid, two Turns ago, had only contained twenty-four eggs. At the time, that had seemed like an overly generous clutch indeed. The norm before then was anywhere between ten and fifteen eggs. The old queen, Reath, had laid a consistent ten eggs nearly every clutch, from which C'rin had Impressed Shelth nearly eight Turns ago now.
She vividly remembered the moment when the small brown emerged from his shell, creeling piteously, and made a direct line for the then-Carrin. The boy, just fifteen Turns, reached Shelth halfway between his broken shell and where he'd been previously standing and they met in a tumble of arms and wings. He emerged from the pileup grinning triumphantly and called out his new lifemate's name so that Carima, watching in wide-eyed wonder from the very front row, could hear just from his voice the way Impression had so completely changed him.
Yes, Hatchings were wonderful events indeed. Carima turned her attention back to the current one, frowning slightly. She couldn't figure out why the eggs weren't cracking yet. The draconic hums hadn't abated, and the eggs were rocking gently on the hot sands, but not a single dragon had emerged yet. All around in the stands people were murmuring quietly, just as confused by the delay as Carima.
Her eyes drifted to the golden queen, Linneth, who was curled up in one corner of the sands, keeping a careful eye on her plentiful clutch. She didn't seem at all concerned, humming with as much vigor as she ever did. Carima took a moment to admire the golden queen. She was lovely, despite being past her prime and not rising quite as often as she had in her youth. Her deep, burnished gold coloring, although not as flashy as some queens Carima had seen, made her all the more unique. She was also fairly gentle for a gold, never trying to intimidate the candidates or getting broody, unlike old Reath, who had been a terror until the last egg cracked.
Still nothing. At least an hour had passed from when the humming began, and though the eggs were rocking a slightly more enthusiastically, there was no sign that they would begin hatching soon. Carima certainly didn't envy the candidates, whose feet must be blistering from the hot sands. She spied Elias near the queen egg and watched her friend fondly. She certainly hoped the blond girl Impressed the queen. Although Elias wasn't the most responsible person and could be brattier than anyone Carima knew, she was also charming and good at making friends, important qualities in a Weyrwoman. Besides, she thought with amusement, if Elias became Weyrwoman and she was the headwoman, she would be more than capable of making sure the Weyr ran smoothly. They would make a good team.
Now, if only the eggs would hatch. Nearly two hours has passed and it seemed as if the Weyrlingmaster was about to remove the dehydrated, overheated candidates from the sands when a shout went up in the crowd and the humming reached fever-pitch intensity. One of the eggs gave a violent shudder and cracked in half, a deep blue dragonet rolling out. He shook himself, stood up, and stalked over to the nearest group of boys. He peered carefully at each one, seemingly in no hurry to find his lifemate. Just as the eggs had taken longer to hatch, these dragonets would take their time finding the perfect candidate. Eventually he stopped in front of a lanky boy with brown hair and cried joyously. The boy knelt and wrapped his arms around the sturdy blue before pronouncing him "Marth."
They headed off the sands and soon there were too many dragonets hatching to keep track of. Two greens, a brown, and another blue all appeared at once and found their lifemates. Then the first bronze appeared, large and feisty, tumbling from his shell and rushing around the sands, knocking boys here and there until he found his chosen. A surprisingly young, delicate looking boy, he appeared to be completely dumbfounded by Impression and had to be nudged off the sands by his impatient dragon.
The moment they had been waiting for happened when nearly half the eggs had hatched. The golden egg gave a sickening lurch and a crack appeared. The crowd watched, collective breaths held, as more and more cracks appeared. Finally the entire shell burst open to reveal the queen. She was the palest gold Carima had seen, her entire body bathed in the light sheen except for her wings, which had streaks of slightly brighter, more traditional gold. She seemed small for her color, hardly bigger than the first bronze that had hatched, but appeared healthy.
She took her time stepping out of the shell remnants and looking at the surrounding girls. There were ten, including Elias, and most looked both eager and utterly terrified at the same time. Only Elias seemed confident, standing straight and tall, ready for the queen to make her choice.
The little gold moved forward slowly and stopped in front of each girl, thoroughly appraising her potential partners. Carima giggled a little. It was almost as if the girls were Hold guards being inspected by an unsatisfied commander. She seemed to get more and more agitated as she rejected the girls, wings dragging in angry jerks as she hopped along.
She finally stopped in front of Elias and cocked her head. Elias took a hopeful step forward but was stopped in her tracks by an angry scream from the dragonet and a warning hiss from Linneth, who was carefully observing her daughter's progress.
The crowd exploded when it became apparent that the queen had rejected every girl on the sands. "She has to choose!" one irate bronzerider called from the stands, evidently extremely anxious for his dragon's potential future mate. Others looked fearful. Every once in a while a dragon died for lack of the proper lifemate, but for it to be a queen was unthinkable.
A deep feeling of terror built in the pit of Carima's stomach. This couldn't be happening. Elias was supposed to Impress the queen and everyone was supposed to be thrilled. That was exactly the way things were going to go. She mentally willed the little dragon to choose, now, but her command was ignored. The rest of the dragons had made their choices, why couldn't she? There was only one other lonely green on the sands; the rest were gone.
She couldn't watch anymore. Carima turned to flee the scene but met a barrier of human flesh. Two hands clamped down on her shoulders and she found herself facing the same rider whose blue had searched her months ago. He seemed much taller and more intimidating now as he glared down at her angrily.
"I knew this would happen," he said, viciously dragging her away from her seat and down the aisles of the stands. "Cirinth has never been wrong about a potential candidate yet. His always Impress."
"But I don't want to!" Carima pleaded as they got lower and lower. She could hear the little queen's haunting cries much more clearly as they descended.
"It doesn't really matter what you want," the rider said, tightening his grip on her arm. "That queen will die if you don't help her now. And a part of you will die right along with her."
The rider burst through what had seemed like a solid wall of riders blocking the entrance to the sands and literally threw Carima in. She landed heavily on the sand and hissed as the heat scalded her skin. She blinked grains of sand out of her eyes and sat up slowly. Her vision slightly blurred from the stinging sand, Carima watched in disbelief as the gold finally moved towards one of the Hold bred girls.
Impression. "Her name is Caleyth!" the girl cried, tears falling down her face as she embraced the pale gold dragonet.
She doesn't want me. She doesn't want me. She doesn't want me. A mixture of relief and faint disappointment whirled around in her head. The queen had made her choice, and it hadn't been Carima. Which is what she had wanted all along. Right? Of course. But then…what on Pern was she still doing on the sands?
These confusing thoughts continued as the girl led the queen off the sands. Then she heard something else.
She is not here yet. I refuse to hatch until she arrives. Carima blinked. The very last dragonet on the sands, a brilliant emerald green with blue-green swirls on her wings, appeared to be trying to climb back into her egg. She was burrowing into the emerald shards, some of which were stuck in haphazard patterns on her now-dry hide. I will come out when she arrives.
She is here now. Carima realized that everyone in the stands could hear as Linneth spoke to her last remaining daughter. The great queen hovered over the green attempting to burrow back into her shell. Look.
It was far too late for Carima to try and run. The mantle of responsibility was hers and hers alone to pick up and shoulder. It was only a matter of time before the green saw her and raced across the sands and come to a jerking halt in front of her.
Why did it take you so long? she demanded angrily.
I'm sorry. I'm here now, Carima explained and then her world was rocked as her eyes locked with the whirling red gaze of the green. It felt like the floor dropped out from beneath her and she was falling, falling into the consciousness of her lifemate. She dropped to her knees as she had seen so many candidates do over the Turns and the green raced into her arms, sending them tumbling down to the sands. This time she hardly even felt the heat, aware only of the incredible waves of love wrapped around her.
They couldn't stay there forever. The dragonet needed to eat. Eventually they untangled themselves and Carima led green Mayath off the sands.
Author's Note: Thanks to those who left encouraging reviews, I really appreciate it. I hope this story is going in an interesting direction, and as always I welcome constructive criticism and helpful feedback. In the next chapter, we'll see how everyone reacts to Carima's unexpected Impression (after all, at this point in time on Pern, girls NEVER Impressed anything other than gold, but I'm working under the assumption that Path couldn't have been the first green to break tradition…), and more importantly, we'll see how Carima herself reacts.