Disclaimer: The Dragonriders of Pern belongs to Anne McCaffery, I make no claim to own it. This is a work of fanfiction which I make absolutely no money from. Though the world is borrowed, the plot and characters are all mine.

(A/N: This would be, sort of, my first foray into Pern fanfiction. It's been a while since I read the books, so I would appreciate it, if you spot an error, that you point it out to me.

I should warn you all that I'm horrible at updating, so updates will probably be sporadic at best.)

(A/N 2: Edited. I've revised and rewritten the chapter, thanks to some helpful tips from my reviewer and beta-reader, AnimeEyeshime. Thank you!

Again. And more edits thanks to astrokath's advice, but these are all minor/grammar things and shouldn't require you to reread it again to understand anything. )

Who the Dragon Heeds

Chapter One-A Look at the Candidates

"After hatching, dragons grow at a phenomenal rate and must be oiled often. After the first year or so, their growth will begin to taper off, reaching their final…" The instructor's voice echoed through the lecture-room, a large area filled with rows of stone benches, currently being used for candidate's lessons. The Candidate Master droned on in his sleep-inducing voice, not noticing that most of the candidates were no longer paying attention. A girl in the back was snoring quietly, and several other candidates were leaning against the wall or each other, eyes closed, or whispering gossip to each other.

There was one girl, however, who seemed to be paying attention to the instructor. She was sitting straight up on her seat, sharp brown eyes fixed on the old Candidate Master. She had light brown skin, and long black hair that reached far beyond her shoulders, even though it would have to be cut if she Impressed.

Danak thought she was the type of girl who would answer every question asked of her correctly, had wowed the harpers in her home Hold with her knowledge and perfect manners, and probably prided herself on her ability to stay awake throughout one of the Candidate Master's infamous speeches. In other words, a know-it-all and teacher's pet.

Danak caught the girl's eye, who returned his stare from the corner of her eye. He made a face at the girl, but she just frowned slightly disapprovingly, never moving her head from the direction of the instructor, and started ignoring him.

He made a grimace, and Danak turned back to where his friend Kelthere was sitting with his head propped up with one hand, staring into space. Kelthere's long, slightly shaggy black hair was, as usual, a total mess, as he hardly ever combed it-not that Danak's was much different in that regard; Danak's hair was just shorter, and a lighter color.

Danak was bored-not a hard feat to accomplish; he had an extremely short attention span-so nudged Kelthere to get his attention. Kelthere craned his head around, fixing brown eyes on the other boy. Learning forward, and making sure the Candidate Master wasn't looking at them, (not that it mattered, he doubted the old man would notice anyway) Danak whispered, "We're wasting the day away in here. Wanna go do something productive with our time?"

Kelthere's answer was a wide grin, and he looked around quickly, to make sure no one was watching them. One person was, another candidate their age who was sitting on the other side of the room, his back leaning against the stony wall. Daradox was one they both knew well, and he was staring at them with an inquiring look on his face.

Not wanting to draw attention by speaking out loud, Kelthere gestured to the other candidate, jerking his head towards the entranceway and mouthing, 'Wanna come?'

Daradox looked incredulous, rolling his eyes with a shake of his head, but even then he had a slight smile on his face.

Kelthere shrugged slightly. Suit yourself, he thought silently to himself as he and Danak stood up slowly, crouching over to not attract their teacher's attention. Daradox ignored them, training his eyes on the instructor, or perhaps the girl in the middle of the room who was scowling at them while trying not to look in their direction.

Sneaking out proved to be absurdly easy; they'd been sitting in the back corner of the room near the door, and the Candidate Master never even looked their way. A few of the other candidates watched them leave, but didn't say anything; in fact, a few clearly wanted to go with them, but didn't want to risk it.

Once outside, the boys raced down the halls of the Lower Caverns laughing. "I didn't think I'd be able to take anymore of his endless droning, it was driving me insane," Danak said.

"I gave up listening to his lectures a week after I came here. Anyway, I think he's run out of lectures, he's started repeating them."

That was because no one had expected the clutch in the Hatching Ground to take so long to hatch. It was two sevendays late already, and some of the weyrfolk were starting to get nervous. And by all rights, Danak and Kelthere should have been among them. As two of the oldest candidates standing, at eighteen and nineteen respectively, this would be their last chance to Impress, since the Weyr's other queen wasn't due to rise for around another two turns, and by then they would be too old to stand. They were both confident, though, that they would Impress.

The laughter died as their thoughts turned to the impending Hatching. "How much longer will it take?" Kelthere asked with a frown, his shoulders slouching as he shuffled along the hall.

Danak shrugged as he answered, "I don't know, but it's got to be soon. None of the other clutches took this long to hatch; it'll be any day now." Danak had been searched when he was thirteen and had stood for several clutches already, while Kelthere had been searched more recently, a few months ago, when candidates had begun to be brought in for the senior queen's clutch now in the Hatching Ground. The shy then-eighteen-turn-old had never been outside of his small fishing Hold before, and Danak had quickly taken the other candidate under his wing. Kelthere had flourished in the Weyr atmosphere, and he enjoyed being around the laid-back weyrfolk and the friends he had made among the other candidates. When he came here, he had made an oath that he would never return to that fishing Hold, if he could help it.

Kelthere was dragged out of his thoughts when the Headwoman appeared suddenly in the hall front of them. She grinned widely at them, a knowing gleam in her eye. "Candidate's class over early today? Good, just what I need, two strong lads to help carry goods. Another tithe caravan just came in, full of black rock from the mines, by the look of it." She took the two candidates by the arms, as if she thought they would run, and led them along to the Weyr entrance where the caravan was gathered.

Kelthere and Danak groaned as they were dragged away to chores. Maybe we should have stayed in class after all, Kelthere thought.

Fylippa didn't bother to hide her scowl of disapproval when she noticed the two boys sneak out of the candidacy class. The nerve of them, walking out in the middle of a lecture! It was galling to her that nobody around them had tried to stop them, and the instructor hadn't even noticed.

Such reckless insubordination would never have been tolerated in the Hold in Crom where she had grown up. She felt the quick burst of pride and relief she had experienced ever since she had been searched for the clutch, and felt a stab of guilt for doing so, having left her family behind to come here. She almost hadn't accepted the search, but she felt that she had to prove she was dragonrider-material, that she was worthy, if only to herself.

Ignoring the fact that she was the only one paying attention anymore, she sat in rapt attention for the rest of the lesson.

They were finally released from the Candidate Master's lecture. There was an instant surge of bodies rushing for the exit as soon as the Candidate Master dismissed them. Fylippa stood up with the rest, moving out of the way as a smaller candidate pushed past her with a mumbled apology, racing for the door. A bigger group of candidates barreled past her for the exit, and she went to stand, back against the wall, out of the way. Another candidate was hanging back as well, and he caught her eye with a smile.

He was tall and dark-skinned, largely built without being overweight, and his black hair was extremely curly where it hung around his face. "Hey," he smiled in greeting. "I think I've seen you around. Fylippa, right?"

Fylippa nodded, suddenly self-conscious as she toyed with a lock of her own long, dark hair. "Yes."

"My name is Daradox, a candidate for Moraughoth's clutch-obviously." The boy-he looked to be about eighteen, actually-grinned ruefully.

Fylippa followed him out of the lecture-room, feeling shy and a little nervous. "I hope Danak and Kelthere didn't bother you too much," Daradox said.

That made Fylippa pause. "Wha-? Oh! The two who snuck out during the lecture? You know them?"

He started playing with the locks of hair curling around his ear, looking sheepish. "Yeah, I guess you could say we're friends. They can be kind of… crazy and spontaneous, as you can no doubt tell, but they're really nice guys. I've known Danak since I came here two turns ago, and Kelthere since he came here."

"You've been here that long?" Fylippa asked wistfully as they strolled through the Lower Caverns. "I was only searched about a month ago…"

"Yeah, I've stood for two clutches already, so I'm used to the Weyr." Daradox favored her with a bright smile. "Don't worry, you'll feel at home before you know it."

Finally, Fylippa began to smile. It was surprising to her how outgoing and friendly Daradox was; or perhaps it was just because she had never gotten along too well with people her own age before. She could tell that the two of them were on their way to becoming good friends, which made her smile all the more.

Manoric may have been one of the younger and smaller candidates, but he'd grown used to chasing after runnerbeasts in the Beasthold where he grew up, and he was a fast runner. This was important, since he was currently being chased by three of the much older candidates-Falkyr and two of his cronies.

Falkyr was widely regarded among the candidates as a bully and an arrogant snit, albeit a handsome one according to the girls. Few of the other candidates got along with him, but he was good at sucking up to the adult riders so rarely got in trouble.

Manoric, having become well-acquainted with Falkyr in the two months since his search, had started running as soon as he saw the older candidate and his goons heading for him after the day's lecture ended. One of Falkyr's friends laughed in his wake as he broke out in a run. "You better practice running, brat! Maybe you can catch a dragon, come Hatching Day!"

Falkyr smiled grimly at that, though neither he nor his companions moved to chase after him yet. Instead, he leaned casually against the wall just outside the lecture-room with his arms crossed on his chest. "Even if he could catch one, it'd probably bite his hand off for daring to touch it." He shook his head with a grin. "Come on, I'm not through with him yet." He straightened his long body, the crony-candidates on either side of him shuffling ahead after their prey.

Outside, Manoric sighed to himself in relief as he slumped against the massive stone side of the Weyr Bowl. He seemed to have lost Falkyr and his friends.

"What's got you so worked up, Manoric?" Manoric looked up to see Danak and Kelthere staring at him curiously. Judging by their faces and clothes smudged in black dust, and the weary slump of their shoulders, they had obviously been working with black rock.

"N-Nothing. It's nothing." Manoric stammered a reply, feeling a blush creeping around his ears. Faranth, but he hated looking like a weakling around older candidates, even if it was only Danak and Kelthere.

The two candidates obviously didn't believe him. "Was it Falkyr again?" Kelthere asked, rolling his eyes scornfully.

The younger boy ducked his head. "He said I'd have to catch a dragon to Impress," he mumbled.

Danak, for one, was clearly not impressed by the bully's wit. "You'd think he'd be able to come up with better insults than that, wouldn't you?" He muttered to Kelthere.

Kelthere grinned at his friend and tried to reassure the fourteen-turn-old candidate. "Nah, I'll bet he feels threatened because you have a better chance of Impressing bronze than he does." Manoric raised his eyebrows skeptically. "Really!"

"Yeah, just make sure you leave a couple of bronzes for us, too," Danak said with a laugh.

Manoric finally smiled a little. "You two are more likely to Impress than I am," he insisted. "You're...older, more experienced..." More confident. "Everyone says you're bound to be chosen, the two of you."

Kelthere waved it off, though he looked pleased at the compliment. "Age or experience has nothing to do with it, from what I've heard, and besides, it's my first time standing, too."

With a glance up at the sky, Danak broke in. "You know, I'll bet it's almost dinnertime by now. We'd better go get ready. All that work's made me hungry," he pointed out.

Manoric wrinkled his nose. "And wash up while you're at it," he said pointedly, causing both boys to grimace at him.

"Cheeky blighter..." Danak grumbled and sniffed. "Meh. We probably need it anyway; come on, Kelthere."

Manoric barely withheld a grin as the older candidates left, but once they were out of sight, another group appeared from the main entrance of the Weyr, making his face pale.

"There you are, brat." Falkyr and his sidekicks stood framed in the Weyr's entranceway, and then they started to close in on him. Manoric took a few nervous steps sideways along the wall away from them. "Worried about the Hatching?" Falkyr asked with a dark grin.

Manoric sighed silently. Why couldn't they leave him alone? "Why, afraid I'll get a bronze and there won't be any left for you?" He shot back before thinking he might have been better off keeping his mouth shut.

The cronies on either side of him growled and cracked their knuckles threateningly, but Falkyr didn't appear bothered; in fact, he seemed amused, if anything. "Actually, I was thinking that if you practice real hard, you might be able to avoid the hungry hatchlings' jaws long enough to attract a green or blue. Or maybe just long enough to get away from the Sands in one piece, anyway."

"I don't know," Manoric eyed his goons, "I think you and your friends would be more suited for that. A pair of greens just might match their intellect." Stop it, stop it, you dimglow…

The goons were really angry now, and even Falkyr looked slightly annoyed. All it took was a slight nod of his head towards the younger candidate. "Get him."

Manoric took off. He knew insulting them wasn't the smartest thing he could have done. He never had been too good at holding his tongue, but at least he knew there was one thing he could do, and do well. He really was a good runner.

"Ah! I can't wait until this clutch finally hatches," Coyota exclaimed, sorting through the many clothes laid out on her bed. Syderi was still amazed that the weyrbred girl had so many dresses when she only needed one for the Hatching Feast.

Almost guiltily, she looked over at her own space, where all her clothes were stuffed together in a sturdy trunk at the foot of her bed, with a beautiful gown for the Feast at the very bottom of the pile.

Right now, the girls had the female barracks to themselves, as most of the other girls were out and about in the Weyr. There were quite a few girls standing this time around, though Coyota had stated authoritatively that for most Hatchings, no more than a handful of girls chose to stand, and it was only the allure of a queen egg that had brought out so many this time around. Syderi supposed the recent Pass had dissuaded most girls from Impressing fighting dragons.

Coyota was tall and well-built, weyrbred through and through. She was not the least bit shy, either, growing up around dragonriders, and she had become a font of knowledge for the other girls. It was easy to see she'd be popular among the males; she had deep, dark red hair in a braid, currently pulled over her shoulder, and her peculiar blue-green eyes drew many interested stares to the unconventional beauty. Right now, she was rearranging her collection of clothes and trying to decide which dress to wear to the Hatching Feast.

From the other bed, Nystai sighed and replied to Coyota's earlier comment. "I can. I get sweaty just thinking about standing on those sands, watching the dragons hatch with everyone looking at me. And, I don't see how I could possibly show up to the Hatching Feast in this dress. It looks horrible on me." She glanced with disgust at the sleek green dress currently draped over her own trunk.

She was a large girl and very self-conscious. Not that she wasn't pretty; her fluffy, chestnut brown hair hung in soft locks to her shoulders, and Syderi was almost jealous of her perfect, unblemished skin.

Coyota scoffed, "Standing's not so bad, the Hatching's over before you know it, whether you Impress or not. And if you don't like it, why did you buy that dress?" she asked in exasperation.

Nystai just shrugged and mumbled something that sounded like, "Looked better before I tried it on..."

Coyota continued smoothing out non-existent wrinkles on her gowns as she replied, "Well…" She sighed. "If you want, I can lend you one of my dresses for the Hatching Feast. I'm sure I have one or two that should fit you." Even as she said it, she looked reluctant to part with one of her gowns, and Syderi almost laughed aloud. She wouldn't have believed the girl capable of such generosity when she'd first met her, but the capricious Coyota had grown on her during her time in candidacy.

"Really?" Nystai brightened up instantly. "Oh, that would help me so much!"

"What about you, Syderi? Do you have a dress for the Feast yet? Please say you do." Coyota directed this to the other girl in the candidate barracks, the one who had silently watched the conversation unfold between her two more talkative friends.

Syderi had grown tired of her roommates' conversation a while ago. Much as she loved her friends, their preoccupation with clothes could be a little trying at times. She looked up from where she lay on her bed, playing with a lock of hair. "Hmm? Oh yes, I got one sent to me from my parents two sevendays ago," she explained, thinking again of the dress at the bottom of her trunk.

She was quite taken with the dress, actually, even though she'd never admit it. She loved the way the dress looked against her brown-blond hair, and even her freckle-splashed skin (faint though they were, she'd always hated the way they looked) couldn't detract from the dress's elegance. In the first couple of days since she got it, she'd pulled it out several times a day just to look at it, until she felt silly obsessing over it and put it away in the bottom of her trunk.

"Why haven't we seen it, then?" Coyota asked, looking put out. "Keeping it a secret to surprise some boy?" she grinned teasingly.

That made Syderi laugh out loud. "I wasn't aware there were any guys worth impressing around here."

Coyota snorted. "You'd find some, if you ever got out and looked around once in a while. There's plenty of eligible guys around."

"Like Falkyr!" Nystai giggled.

Syderi wrinkled her nose distastefully and shook her head. "He didn't strike me as a very nice person, though."

"Well, he's no good for a serious relationship, but...let's just say I wouldn't mind if his dragon caught my dragon someday." Coyota smirked, and then she tilted her head thoughtfully. "And then there's Danak and Kelthere, though they do tend to be a bit immature, considering they're both almost too old to Impress…"

Syderi frowned, thinking about them. Danak had been pointed out to her once, and she's seen him and his friend around a few times, though she'd never really talked to either of them.

A younger girl popped her head into the barracks from outside, interrupting them. "It's almost dinnertime, you know. You might want to get to the Great Hall before all the good food's gone," the dark-haired girl said with a wink before disappearing.

"Thank you, Ribala," Coyota called dryly after her.

"Good, I was getting hungry," Nystai chirped.

"You two go on ahead," Syderi said. Thinking about the dress had reminded her that she wanted to write a letter to her parents in her Hold.

Syderi stepped out of the candidate barracks a little while later, hoping she wasn't late for dinner. She raced down the hall, (feeling a little guilty for doing so, even though no one was around to reprimand her) and was startled enough that she almost ran into a young man when he ducked out of a side room. His arms caught her and steadied her before she crashed into him. Syderi blushed bright red. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there!" Obviously. She looked again at the man she'd almost knocked over, and realized with surprise that she knew him. Or, recognized him, at least.

It was Kelthere, the candidate that usually hung around Danak, the one Coyota had been talking about earlier. She almost blushed again, thinking of that.

Kelthere was average in height, only an inch or two taller than her, but muscularly built and heavily tanned, from spending lots of time outdoors, no doubt. His-slightly damp-black hair looked halfway neat for once, not sticking out everywhere like it usually did, and Syderi realized that he was handsomer close up than from a distance. She also realized he was staring at her with quizzical, dark brown eyes.

Syderi rallied herself, straightening to introduce herself. "I'm Syderi, a candidate for the clutch."

"Yeah, I think I've seen you around before. I'm Kelthere," he replied. "Late for dinner?"

"I was finishing a letter to send to my parents, but yes, I was on my way to the Great Hall."

Kelthere found himself intrigued by the girl in front of him, trying to exude confidence to hide her nervousness. It didn't hurt, of course, that she was pretty, with deep brown eyes and faint freckles, he noticed, dotting her nose and cheeks. "I was heading there myself. Come on," he led her in the direction of the Great Hall. "Looking forward to the Hatching? Think you'll Impress?"

Syderi laughed. "If I didn't, I wouldn't have accepted the search, would I? What about you?"

Kelthere reached up to ruffle the hair at the back of his head-a nervous action, Syderi thought. "I don't see any reason why I shouldn't Impress. I'll be satisfied with any dragon, of course, but I'm…kind of hoping for a bronze."

Syderi smiled at him. "Ambitious, are you? Got plans for Wingleadership?"

Kelthere returned her smile with one of his own. "What about you? Do you have your eyes on the queen egg?"

She sighed wistfully. "That would be nice, wouldn't it?" They had arrived in the Great Hall now. Syderi could see Coyota and Nystai waiting for her at their usual spot, while two male candidates, one light-skinned with messy brown hair like Kelthere's, the other dark-skinned with curly black hair, waved to Kelthere at another table.

"Well, I'll see you later," Kelthere turned to her. "Good luck on Hatching Day."

"Good luck to you, too!" Syderi replied, before striding to where Coyota and Nystai were waiting for her.

The candidates were all in the barracks by curfew that night, but few of them were asleep as of yet.

In the girl's barracks: "Do you think the clutch will hatch tomorrow?"

"Who knows, it's already late. It could hatch at any time, now."

"So what color do you think you'll Impress?"

"Green, definitely. I'm not interested in the gold, thanks."

"What?" "You're not?" "Why?" "That's okay, just means I have a better chance at it myself." Laughter.

"Syderi? What about you? Fylippa?"

"Mmm..."

"Hmmm..."

And in the boy's: "Who's going for a bronze?"

"Me! Of course I'm getting a bronze!"

"Be quiet, Falkyr." "Be quiet, Falkyr." "Hey!"

"Wouldn't mind a brown, myself."

"Eh, blue for me. Who needs responsibility anyway?"

"What about you?"

"A bronze."

"Oh really?"

"...Maybe I've got aspirations of Wingleaderhood."

(A/N: There's the first chapter. Feedback of any sort would be very much appreciated, especially detailed constructive criticism. I'd also be interested in hearing what you all think about who Impresses what color (or whether they Impress at all, as the case may be). I've already got all the pairings worked out, though, so unfortunately, it won't affect what they actually end up getting.)