Disclaimer: I don't own anything/anyone from the Pern world books. I do own most of the characters in this story and anything else not from the original series.
Chapter One: Eggs in the Sand
Earth
The ball sailed through the air. Star chased after it, trying to keep her footing in the sand, but the hot beach slowed her, and the ball landed. "Dang," she muttered under her breath. The fifteen-year-old trudged up to the ball, and then returned to her volleyball team. "Sorry," she told the other players, and launched the ball into the air. Before it could land, she smacked it across the net and frowned when the other team intercepted it.
A wind blew through her hair, colder than usual, and not from the waves that pounded the beach. She frowned and looked into the gust, toward her towel and outer clothes, lying on a log further down the beach.
Nothing. What did she expect? She shook her head, black hair highlighted with a streak electric blue flying around. She tried to pay more attention to the game she and the other kids were playing.
They finished not long after, when the sun began to set, the other beach-goers left, and the warmth fled from all shade. She said her goodbyes to them, and they trudged back to their cabins or the showers after collecting their stuff. Star looked up at the moon, visible though the sun had yet to sink behind the ocean. The camp had been going on for the past twelve days. Tomorrow would be Sunday, and she and the other campers, ranging from ages thirteen to sixteen, would be packing and going home after two weeks of warm June weather. She'd made acquaintances, if not friends, while she was here. She didn't make friends that easily, but the few she made were lasting friendships.
She walked back to where her beach bag sat on a log and pulled it off the dead tree. A small motion caught her eye and she looked back over her shoulder. Something seemed to have fallen out of her bag. "Dang," she muttered again, and swung the bag up over her shoulder. Three little objects were lying in the hot sands, and she seriously doubted they had fallen out of her bag.
Star reached over to pick one up; its heat surprised her into nearly dropping it. The creamy shell was mottled with splotches of light brown. It fit just in the hollow of her palm, oval in shape. All at once she let it fall onto the soft sands.
They were eggs.
Three eggs.
She looked around. No one was near or paying any attention to her. Hesitantly, Star picked all three up, cradling them in her hands. She could not pass up the opportunity to see and identify a specimen of a wild creature, whenever the adult of the species returned. Some reptiles, she knew, used compost to keep their eggs warm. Sand was a lovely way as well.
Vaguely she wondered why no one had discovered them before, then realized that they had been half-hidden beneath the log. She herself wouldn't have looked there if she hadn't thought she had lost something. Star studied the eggs for a moment, then set them back down and slid them just under the log. High tide was far away, perhaps thirty feet down the beach. She covered them in warm sand. Confident that no one would find them, she headed back to camp to change out of her swimming suit for dinner.
000
Star came back the next day at the first opportunity, a little before noon, to check the eggs. She had brought her lunch, a book, a beach blanket and a towel, in case she went swimming later, in her bag. Claiming a spot not far from the log and the mound of sand that was her three covered eggs, she settled down and opened her thick volume to the bookmark, a fake $100 bill.
After reading a page, and realizing she had no clue what she'd just read, she succumbed to temptation and brushed aside the sand to look at the mysterious eggs. She lightly laid her fingers over one. Beneath her hand, the egg gave a spasmodic jerk.
With a gasp she pulled her hand back and looked around. Once more no one was watching. 'They can't hatch now! I haven't got anything for them to eat!' she thought. 'I'm no mama!' She had only wanted to see the mother of this creature, not actually have them hatch on her!
'Oh, no,' she thought, 'what if I scared the mother off? They might die without her!' Star looked down at the rocking egg. A second began to tremble. 'Real mama or no, I guess I'm at least a temporary one until they can get out of here.' She sighed and pulled out her sack lunch, then took out her tuna fish sandwich. 'Hope they're omnivorous…'
000
Star stared down at the two creatures on her blanket. Their wet-darkened skins were like soft suede, one nearly brown, but not quite. She supposed it was bronzy. The other was smaller and blue. They chirped, and she got a swift impression of hunger from them.
Cautiously, she tore off some of her sandwich and set it in front of her. The bronzy one pounced, wings half-spread, and gobbled it down in one go. Star set more out for them, and was surprised when the blue leapt into her hand. Carefully, she continued to feed them, but soon found that one sandwich was not enough.
And then the third hatched, spilling a dainty, tiny green creature onto the sand. Random, intense impressions of hunger pelted her from three sources. Star proceeded to alternate feeding between all three of them. They shrieked for her to continue feeding them as she fumbled hastily for her bagel and cream cheese. After that all she'd have left was a couple of hard-boiled eggs and a can of soda. She didn't think the soda would be good for them, whatever they were.
They were sedated by the time their skins were dried out. The blue, now a light sky blue, and the larger bronzy one curled up in her arms, while the green, dark as sushi seaweed, settled on her knee as the teenager sat cross legged. 'Uh-oh,' she thought, as they appeared to fall asleep. Gently, she shifted them to the head of her blanket and brought down the top, neatly covering the three sleeping creatures.
Then she lay back on the blanket, careful to shift down so as not to disturb her new friends, and fell into a light doze.
000
She woke around dinnertime, and found that she was extremely hungry. The little creatures were waking, giving her their hunger thoughts again, not urgently. Hurriedly but gently, she shifted them so that she could carry them, voices only just muffled, in the blanket, then grabbed her bag and set off back to the cabins at a fast pace.
Star set the bundle on her bunk and threw on her jeans and T-shirt over her bathing suit. She unintentionally sent something inaudible along the lines of Stay here, don't move, I'm going to get some food, to her companions. They stayed. They grumbled Hunger! Impatience! at her, but they didn't wiggle. Much, anyway.
In a mad dash she was out the door, racing to get food before someone noticed her.
000
Inevitably, she wound up being steered to dinner, and then got drafted on to dish-clearing duty after dinner. By then the little creatures were screaming in her mind with hunger. She sent them calming thoughts, though how she suddenly knew how, she never figured out, and managed to sneak, in the pretext of going out back to the restroom, a heaped plate of table scraps, spaghetti and meatballs and set it out by the corner of the bathrooms for retrieval later.
But by the time she came back out, pleased with her performance, it was clean of all but some of the noodles and a bit of sauce. Horrified at the thought of having a dog or something come and eat what she had saved so carefully, she was brought up short by impressions of gratitude, sleepiness, and smugness. On the roof of the restrooms, silhouetted by the near-gone sunset streaks across the sky, were three dark shapes.
They all glided down to her, still projecting their gratitude and sleepiness, and landed on her, the green on one shoulder, bronze on the other and the blue on her arm. "As long as you things are fed, I'm okay with anything you 'say' to me." She smiled indulgently at the green, and ran a finger over the membranes of the velvety wing.
A soft croon emanated from the little creature, and she turned back to her cabin, feeling as sleepy as she could ever remember.
000
She was jerked out of sleep by a sudden thought: ravenous hunger, and not just her own. Star looked down beside her, and found three pairs of rolling, no… spinning, whirling eyes rainbow in color, by her side. "Hello," she whispered, and sent welcoming thoughts to them. The green came forward until she lost sight of the little creature when she touched her nose. Hungry! Hungry! They insisted.
"Oh, all right, I'm up," she yawned, and sat up. It was incredibly early. With a grumble she checked her watch. 'Six. Lovely.' She got out of bed quietly. The previous night she had positioned her sleeping bag over herself and her three friends, so the others would not see them. She would release them back on the beach today, she decided, before she and the rest of the campers left.
Stifling a groan she got out of bed and snuggled deeper into her sweatshirt. It was freezing. Cautiously she hobbled outside, the little creatures following, and went to see if she could get something to eat for them.
On the walk, she watched them zip back and forth in the air. She wondered again just what sort of creature they were, to have four legs and wings. She chuckled again, and smiled as they darted around…
Eating.
They were eating moths. "So you can get your own food. Good," she muttered. "I won't have to deal with you." Nearly to the kitchen she turned and headed towards the beach, hoping no one would hear her. The beaches were off limits until eight, after breakfast.
The tide was out, leaving shallow pools exposed. Her friends chirped their excitement and dove about scooping up anything small enough to eat but large enough to be worth it. Star sat on a rock, and watched them for a minute.
Then she turned and tried to leave quietly. Stay! She sent to them, don't look for me. For a moment she was glad she had succeeded, then stopped as they came squeaking back to her. Go! She urged, Leave! They disappeared faster than she could see.
Star blinked, then shrugged and started back to her cabin. After all, how was she supposed to keep them when she couldn't even think what they were? All of a sudden they reappeared and homed back in on her, settling on her shoulders and her arm. Go! she all but screamed at them. They set up a clamor she would have thought could wake the dead. Shhh! Be quiet! She scolded, and the sounds died away.
The little creatures clustered closer into her black, blue-highlighted hair, sending love and assurance at her. Star laughed, smiling resignedly at them. She was very sure that she was going nowhere without them.