Sorry for the delay in updates; mid-semester tests are a pain! It seems like everything is happening at once!

Anyway, I do not own Pern or any characters you may recognise. I am, however, willing to lend any you don't to anyone who asks nicely.

D'ron sat, rocking his brother's body in his arms as tears ran down his face and mingled with the blood that was already there. He could distantly hear Jarrath keening, and felt his presence in his mind, but all that existed for him at the moment was M'kai.

"D'ron?" he heard a voice ask. "What happened? Every dragon in the Weyr is keening and Camanth tells me Tyrith is no more."

He lifted his head, and ignored Drianne's gasp. "M'kai came to fight me," he said dully. "He challenged me to a duel to the death, and though I tried to save him, I killed him. He hit my face, and I lashed out blindly and killed him." He lowered his head and tightened his grip on M'kai.

"B'kennor! Go and get Helida!" she shouted down the path. "Oh, D'ron," she breathed, turning back to him. She bit her lip. "D'ron, you need to come back down to the Weyr and we'll fix you up. Then we need to prepare M'kai for his burial. Where do you want to bury him?"

"Between," D'ron whispered. "We'll inter him between. Then his body can always be with Tyrith."

A sudden wave of dizziness swept over him, and he put a hand to his head. He felt how sticky his cheek was, and whipped his hand off to stare at the blood that clung to it.

"Where am I bleeding from?" he asked in a whisper.

Drianne, looking pale, knelt and put her arms around him. "Don't worry about it for now…" she began, but D'ron cut her off.

"Where?" he demanded.

She sighed. "You don't want to know."

"I'll have to find out sooner or later. Where?" he demanded stubbornly.

There was an awkward pause. "Your eye," she finally whispered, standing and looking away from him. "You've lost your eye."

"Lost it?" D'ron queried, staring at his hand.

"It's gone," she choked, and tears began to run down her face.

D'ron sat in shock as B'kennor and Helida arrived and gently prised M'kai away from him. He docilely followed them down the path to the Weyr and drank the wine Helida made for him, ignoring the bitter taste of the fellis juice. Within moments, he was asleep.

x

"It will take you a while to adjust to your new sight," Helida warned as she gently removed the bandages. D'ron slowly opened his eye. He had been kept in bandages since the fight two sevendays ago, and Helida had decided that it was time to remove them.

"What do you mean?" he asked, reaching for the glass of water that was sitting on the table next to him, but while he could see it, he couldn't feel it. He moved his hand around a little, and felt it knock the glass to the floor.

"Sorry!" he said in alarm.

"Don't be. That's the sort of thing I mean," she said, bending to retrieve the glass. "You'll find that you perceive things differently now, and it will take you a while to learn to compensate for it."

"We'll help you," Kirsty said, gently squeezing his arm. "As much as we can."

"Thanks, Kirsty," he said, trying to place his hand on hers and succeeding on the second try. "I appreciate it."

x

"You all right, D'ron?" B'kennor called above the wind.

"Fine!" he called back with a wave.

D'ron, Jarrath, B'kennor and Dioanth were flying low in the western mountain range, searching for M'kai's hidden weyr. M'kai's words about the book in his weyr had been bothering D'ron, and he had finally persuaded Helida and B'kennor to let him fly out there and have a look for it.

"Do you have any idea where we should be looking?" B'kennor asked.

"No," called back D'ron. "But we should probably look for somewhere with a big ledge that catches the sun. Tyrith loved to sunbathe, and M'kai would have chosen a place his dragon liked."

"Makes sense," B'kennor replied with a nod.

They had been flying over and between the mountains for more than an hour when Dioanth suddenly pulled up, nearly unseating B'kennor.

"What's the matter?" B'kennor asked, stroking Dioanth's neck.

I saw a wide ledge below us, he replied, tilting his wing to allow his rider to see what he had seen.

"D'ron! There's a ledge down there! Let's check it out!" B'kennor shouted, pointing downwards. D'ron nodded his approval, and the two bronzes began to glide in circles so they could have a clear view of the platform as they descended.

Jarrath landed, and D'ron dismounted. "It certainly looks promising," he admitted, peering around for some sign of a shelter M'kai could have used.

Jarrath moved to let Dioanth land, and soon B'kennor had joined D'ron on the ground. "Let's have a bit of look around, shall we?" he suggested, striding across the ledge.

D'ron hurried after him, and found him peering into a dark cave. "What can you see?" he asked, halting beside him.

"I can't see much at all, but I can smell dragon," B'kennor replied, stepping over the threshold. D'ron sniffed, and realised he was right as the spicy smell that was unique to dragons came drifting out to meet his nose.

"Look at this!" B'kennor exclaimed. D'ron joined B'kennor inside and stumbled over to him, putting out a hand to feel his way in the semi-darkness. "It's a book of some sort, and it looks like M'kai's writing, but I can't make it out in this darkness," B'kennor said, squinting at the words written on the page. "I need to take it outside."

Together, they returned to the plateau, D'ron blinking in the brighter light. His eye no longer adjusted as well as it once had, and sudden changes in the level of light around him disoriented him.

"It is M'kai's writing, and it looks like a diary!" B'kennor exclaimed, leafing through the pages. He flipped back to the start, cleared his throat and began to read aloud, but D'ron stopped him.

"If it is M'kai's diary, then it is private," he said firmly, looking B'kennor in the eye. "I would prefer it if I could read it alone, then tell you what I find. I realise this sounds a little ridiculous, but… he was my brother, and these are his last words. I don't want to share them. Even with you," he said softly, looking away. "I hope you can understand."

"Of course I can, D'ron," B'kennor said warmly. He handed the book to D'ron. "Just tell me if you find anything important."

Catch you soon!