Sorry it's been such a long time between updates - I have been very busy with a stitching project for a competition, but that's entered and now all I have to do is tidy up! So I thought I'd come back to this story and see how it's developed.

Black, blacker, blackest

Saska was sure she had forgotten to breathe, that something was pressing on her chest, something was holding her down and forcing her through her own body.

Black, blacker, blackest

Saska knew she was dying, that if she did not see light and breathe air soon she would be dead before she had begun her life.

Black, blacker, blackest

Saska ran to her parents, crying, because something had bitten her, and they were there with loving arms and the pain of the injection was no more than the pain of the bite and her hideously swollen foot.

Black, blacker, blackest

Saska sobbed her heart out and not even her father could comfort her because the beast that had come into the camp had ripped it apart and killed her friend, strewn his lifeless body like so much raw meat.

Black, blacker, blackest

They burst into air and light, and the sun was cruelly bright, and there were clouds all around them, and Noreth screamed in pain, jolted sideways, tumbled and fell, screaming, and H'rat was screaming as well. There was something slithering down her ship suit and Saska lashed out at it and tossed it away, tore more of it from the harness, and they were tumbling end over end, and then coming to a bruising halt, and she was pressed up against dragonhide, her arm bent at an agonising angle as the world tilted and tipped her into unconsciousness.

"Is she awake?"

"I think so - let me lift her - try and get her to drink."

"That's better - some went down- wipe her face with this."

Saska gasped air and tried to open her eyes, struggling to make sense of the wavering light, the people bending over her, but it was too much to understand and she slipped away again in unconsciousness.

"Hello, mystery lady."

A quiet voice, soothing, and Saska sighed out and opened her eyes, let go of her feverish clutch on the bedclothes.

"H'rat?"

"Was that his name?"

"Noreth?"

"The blue dragon, yes?"

Saska forced her gaze to focus, fighting against the waves of nausea, and the woman beside the bed lifted her to drink, water, seeming to be sucked into the pores of her tongue and throat.

"That's better. I've been able to keep some water going into you, but you need to drink it yourself. A little more."

The woman turned her head as the door opened and Saska squeezed her eyes shut against the brightness that was as suddenly cut off again.

"Is she awake and in her senses?"

"She's given us two names, H'rat and Noreth his blue dragon."

"I'll send them out and see what weyr they came from."

"I'm going to move your pillows a little. Hold onto my arm. That's right. Is that better? A little more water?"

Saska focussed on the woman holding the cup. She wore a light coloured gown, with an intricately woven leather belt, and a green ribbon on her shoulder.

"Green - healer," Saska said hoarsely.

"That's right. I'm Granne, Brekke's daughter."

"Brekke - healer."

"Yes, Brekke was a healer. You know her name - can you give us yours? And which Weyr both of you came from?"

"No weyr. Not my home. Came to find out - the dragons are getting smaller."

"Well I don't know about that," the man said from where he was still standing by the door. "Mnementh might take exception to that. Even Golly is bigger than average."

Saska gripped Granne's sleeve

"We fell - out of the sky - I thought I was going to die - "

"And you would have done if two of the bronzes hadn't caught the three of you and brought you to ground," she replied. "They snapped you in and out of between to get rid of the Thread but it was too late for that poor dragon and its rider, they were scored through and through."

"My bag - "

"Untouched. I don't know what it's made of, nor that suit you were wearing, but they protected you from Thread - not even a score mark on them."

"Inorganic," Saska whispered. "Dead?"

"You named them H'rat and Noreth, and yes, they both died."

"I can't - get home - without them - "