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 Fourteen: Time Disorientation
Pern
"What happened?" she gasped, utterly disoriented.
"Don't ask anything!" Joozith and Pralosa dumped her off and she staggered in the wind from their wings.
It had all happened so fast…
Star stood in the Bowl of Benden Weyr once again, a place she had so recently left. But now she would wait here until she could go home. "Star?" a voice called to her. "Is that you again?"
Slowly she turned. Joozith and Pralosa, the age gone from them again in the blink of an eye, came up behind her. "Again?" she said wonderingly to herself, not caring if they heard her. "Myself… again?"
Time could not be changed.
"Are you all right?" the greenrider asked. "And didn't we kind of just get you back home?"
Star looked at her for a long moment. The woman had said everything would be all right. And in her heart she now believed it. Time was the same; the past was what had happened, and it could not be changed. She herself had saved herself that night so many millennia ago, with the help of this dragonrider. But an aged version.
Five years from now, she would go back and save herself as she was now. She had, so she would. And for the first time since learning she would be separated from her world and family for so long, she was at peace with every decision she had made, with every choice that had brought her to this point.
"Yes," she answered Pralosa at last, believing in her heart of hearts, her soul of souls, that it was true. Vanya settled on her shoulder and rubbed her head along Star's cheek. "I'm better than all right… now." 'Everything will come full circle, my past is my future; as it has been so it will be. Wow, that sounded very mysterious and prophetic.' She chuckled to herself and grinned as Pralosa. "Yeah, I'm fine. But… I think I'll be staying for a while. I… sort of talked some sense into myself."
Pralosa frowned, but Star just shook her head. "I'll explain later. But… it'll be about fire Turns, I think, before anything makes sense." Joozith rumbled. Star went over to her and gave the green dragon's muzzle a hug. Thank you my friend, for everything, past, present and future, she told her.
You are most welcome, Star. The teenager smiled, then yawned. "Jetlag, damn," she muttered. "Here I am on another world, and I've got jetlag." 'Well, at least some things are normal.'
"You've had a rough few days," Pralosa said, smiling crookedly. "Bed, then food, in that order, and then…"
"And then we'll see. My path is not yet fully shown. Only when the circle of time is completed will it by revealed." 'There I go again; Ms. Prophet.' "Never mind," she said. Silently the two turned and walked back into Benden Weyr.
Only one glance did Star spare, a swift look at two green dragons, eyes locked, one here on the ground, one silhouetted by the two moons. Silently they nodded too each other, and turned away.
Star smiled, and walked under the tunnel archway. That one step, into Benden Weyr, would change her life utterly, more than she could ever have imagined. As she did so, she accepted fate and destiny, trusting in not only the past to do what was right, but the future, and herself.
Softly, as she and Pralosa walked down the hallway lined with fading glows, she began to sing to herself, a song that took on more meaning for her than ever before.
The road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began
Now far ahead the road has gone
And I must follow… if I can…
Pursuing it with eager feet
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet
And whither then?... I cannot say…
–By J. R. R. Tolkien