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 Five: Following the Yellow Brick Road
Star slowly slid off Joozith's neck and landed on the sand with a soft jolt. "Umm… hello," she said uncertainly.
"Joozith!" one of them cried softly. She dashed suddenly out of the small cluster of people and hugged the green dragon's muzzle. Star nodded. That would be her bonded friend, whatever they called themselves.
"You're Pralosa, then," she said to confirm. They looked at her, eyebrows furrowing.
"Yes…" The girl named Pralosa drew out the word suspiciously, "do I know you?"
"I don't think so. Joozith told me." The teenager indicated her friend and flicked her hair back over her shoulders. She noticed them staring at the blue streak in the black. "I just dyed it," she informed them.
"You said… Joozith spoke to you? You heard her?" One of the young women in the group stepped forward now and frowned.
"We talked a little, yes, but I can only hear her if she wants me to or isn't paying attention; I think when she really doesn't want to talk to me she can keep me from hearing, like when she was greeting you. I knew she was talking, but I couldn't understand her. Although I don't think my dragons can block me out."
"Dragons?!" The two who spoke placed special emphasis on the plural. "How many do you have?" one of the young men asked.
"Only three," she said, and looked up to call down Nirvana, Vanya and Elzin, "and not the big ones like yours." Green Vanya landed on her outstretched arm, though blue Elzin and bronzy Nivi chirped as they fluttered around her head.
"Fire lizards," the young woman who had asked if she had spoken with Joozith corrected. "They're fire lizards, the ancestors of the dragons."
Star didn't say anything, but stroked Vanya's wing, producing a croon out of the little creature. Then she grinned, looking up at the silver dragon, and chuckled slightly to herself.
"Vanya, I really don't think we're in Kansas, or Seattle, any more."
The girl, just a year or two older than Star herself, chuckled along with her and a young man of the same age near her. "No, you're definitely not." She jerked her thumb at everyone in turn as she named them.
"That's S'pilron, blue Dizith's dragonrider, C'nam, bronze Gamrith's rider, Tristan, rider of bronze Kurith. Joozith and Pralosa you know already. I'm Jessica, Jess, rider of Vailath the silver. Me'n Tristan were originally from Earth; we were the other two on the back of the first gold dragon who crash landed there. All of us here, plus some others from the Weyr – the dragons' home–" she amended, "were there the second time around."
Feeling a little overwhelmed at the fancy titles and such prestigious company, Star looked down. "My name's Star… not a dragonrider, but I guess a fire lizard and dragon friend, for what it's worth." She tickled her green Vanya's stomach to hide her embarrassment and confusion.
Jessica's friend, the one she had called the rider of bronze Kurith, Tristan, spread his arms wide in a gesture that took in all of where they were with a broad smile and addressed her theatrically with a bow.
"Welcome to Nais Weyr, of Pern, Star Dragonsfriend."
000
"There's something I still don't understand," Pralosa commented as they walked down the beach. Star had already told them briefly about the events she had been present at, from the day so long and so soon ago at camp, when she had found the eggs, to the way Joozith had arrived and borne her to Pern. "How did you call Joozith?"
Star shook her head mutely, steadying Vanya on her shoulder with one hand while the other two fire lizards glided above her, chirping a conversation. "I don't know." She hesitated, then gave a guess. "It might have had something to do with the dra- the fire lizards," she amended. "Maybe they called Joozith." She looked quizzically back and to the right at the dragon following the small party.
As before, the green dragon was vague. You called, I came, was all she would say on the matter.
"Very specific, wonderfully detailed," the teenager grumbled, "helped a bunch."
Jessica snorted, as if hiding a laugh, while some of the others smiled. She turned to frown at Star, though they all kept going. "You heard her, then?"
"Like not everyone did," she scoffed, grinning at the silver dragon's rider. "She's so much clearer than mine." Vailath snorted and reached forward with her head and neck to halt the group. She lowered her eyes so she gazed straight into Star's.
She hears us very well, she commented to Jess.
"Clear as a bell," reported Star.
The silverrider and bronzerider groaned. Jess commented to Tristan dryly. "Poor Lessa. She must be having fits to see how many people like that there are back in time on Earth."
"There was only two, you know," commented one of the young men.
"Back in time?" Star exclaimed, staring at the two, just as another voice called out,
"Not angry in the least!"
"Time," confirmed S'pilron, then he turned to see who had called out. Two people were coming towards the group. Vailath and Joozith stepped forward to greet them, then skirted the pair and went further up the beach. One of them was a short woman with braided hair and a fierce face, the other a tall, amiable looking man with a wide grin and graying brown hair, whose eyes were startling amber. Both were peeling off jackets as they went and carrying helmets and goggles of some kind.
"Weyrwoman Lessa," murmured Jess and bowed slightly to the older, shorter woman as the others did the same, Star a little behind them.
The woman stopped and looked at Star piercingly. "So you're the one who sent the call," she remarked.
Uncertainly, the teenager nodded. "I guess so. My lady- Weyrwoman Lessa," she added belatedly, remembering that the others spoke of her with respect and reverence. "I'm Star… from Earth."
"Oh, trust me," the short, fierce woman said, laughter making her less forbidding. "I know." The smile faded and she beckoned to the girl to follow. Jessica started forward. "I'm not going to bite her," growled Lessa, not unkindly, "but we do need to talk. This girl –a human like us– sent out a call for aid not only across worlds and time, but even to another sensitive human. Only dragons and fire lizards have yet been able to call to humans, and we only to them, though the dragons do speak amongst themselves."
She smiled wryly, half a grimace of annoyance and continued. "We cannot ignore this. We shouldn't have ignored this as long as we have; you young people from Earth crossing so many times to here, Pern, all at once after so many centuries of peace. It must be addressed."
"I've seen the Munchkins," she muttered to herself as she stepped forward, with only Jessica to hear. "Now I want to click my heels and go back home. There's no place like home."
Swallowing hard, Star followed her to a waiting dragon, a gold, larger than any she had seen before.
"There's no place like home. There's no place like home."
But Oz couldn't be wished away so easily now, for her, and she could only follow the yellow brick road to wherever it led her- hopefully to the wizard who would send her home.