Elsath of Pern

A/N
This is a short story that puts two Disney princesses on Pern.

Six young women surrounded the queen egg, nervously watching it for cracks or motion. Anha and the other five had been Searched from Hold and Hall; apparently, High Reaches Weyr had already exhausted their supply of sensitive young women. One of them was about to become the rider of a queen dragon, and they had little or no idea what that meant, except that it was considered a very high honor.

The egg stirred and rolled over. Its occupant was chipping away at the inside of her shell, and suddenly it shattered into a dozen pieces. The newly-hatched dragon gleamed gold in the dim light of the hatching cavern. She looked all around, fanned her wings daintily, and took a hesitant step toward the six candidates. Then she swiftly closed the distance to Anha as the others scattered.

I am Elsath!

"Elsath... I'm Anha. You're beautiful!"

You are beautiful, and wonderful, and wise, and kind. You are the most wonderful human who ever lived! I am so lucky to have found you. Now, please feed me. I am exceptionally hungry.

"I will!" the girl exclaimed as they followed a blue rider down the ramp to the bowl below. "This is amazing! For the first time in forever, I have found a lifelong friend! For the first time in forever, there's a joy that will not end."

Like all weyrlings, Anha chafed under the authority of her tutor, which was Weyrwoman Pilgra in her case. In particular, she wanted to ride her dragon into the sky long before the Weyrwoman thought they were ready. "You think your dragon is ready," Pilgra said sharply. "I think she isn't. Which of the two of us knows more about dragons?"

"Which of the two of us knows more about Elsath?" Anha countered. "The sky is awake, so I'm awake, so I want to fly!"

"Not today," Pilgra snapped. "You'll get your chance; I promise you that. But I won't allow you to risk your young dragon's wings until they're strong enough to carry you."

Elsath was taking a drink from the weyr's lake when Anha brought her the news. "The Weyrwoman won't let me fly with you yet." Elsath was very unhappy to hear that, and she huffed her displeasure. To her shock and amazement, her huff froze the entire lake into solid ice.

Other people saw it happen, and the word spread rapidly. The next thing Anha knew, they were surrounded by Weyrleader T'bor, Weyrwoman Pilgra, and an assortment of Wingleaders and Wingseconds, all demanding to know what Elsath had done and how she'd done it.

I do not know. I just did this. Elsath huffed again. The cold blast out of her mouth was visible, even though the lake was already frozen.

"That's incredible!" Pilgra exclaimed. "You're like a fire-breathing dragon in reverse! It's too bad that cold can't destroy Thread, the way fire can."

"But cold CAN destroy Thread!" T'bor retorted. "We all know that Thread turns to harmless black dust when it falls in the high north. Maybe Elsath can fight Thread like the other dragons... except she won't have to pause to get more firestone."

"Queen dragons have to fight in the queens' wing," Pilgra reminded him. "Otherwise, the male dragons will try to protect her instead of paying attention to their own jobs. Dragons and riders get hurt that way. In any case, Elsath is at least three months away from being ready to fly with her rider."

"Can you make it two months?" T'bor asked her. "Aren't there some wing exercises that Elsath can do to build up her wing muscles? I want this amazing dragon in the air, fighting Thread, as quickly as possible."

"You and me both," Anha added.

And so it was that, barely two months later, Elsath and Anha rose with the queens' wing to fight Thread over Tillek and High Reaches. Pilgra and her Selgrith normally took the lead position in the golden wedge of queen dragons, but this time, she took a secondary position so Elsath could shoot her cold blasts in a wider arc without endangering any other dragons. She proved to be every bit as effective as T'bor had hoped. Anha shared in her queen's excitement at fulfilling her destiny. As they returned from their mission, she couldn't help singing –

"Thread will go! Thread will go!
"Can't let it live anymore.
"Thread will go! Thread will go!
"That's the word we got from T'bor!

"In the air, I can fly all day
"With my golden queen.
"Her cold's going to smother the Thread away."

The End