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____Chapter 1____T'bias____ We blinked out over the open woods. But something about them didn't seem...right. No centaurians like A'mili. No Wherries. No double moons. And most importantly, no Weyr. "Where are we?" Rachel cried. "All of us couldn't have misdone the coordinates!" "Then, by Faranth's egg, what happened?" <I have a feeling that perhaps we had no choice in coming.> A'mili said, as his white Marth flew from right under me. "AGAIN, I say," Rachel sneered, "Where are we?" "Obviously where the dragons are quite different." Aftran called from her green, Kareth. "Look. They're all black, riderless, and for that matter, wingless." She said as a gaggle came towards us. "You've had too much fellis."I replied. I must agree, Dragons that match all three of those criteria are not dragons at all. Marth added. "They've got to be dragons. What else flies on Pern?" "What makes you think this is Pern?" Erek flew up to me on Cheth. "It looks like no part of it I've seen." "And that's in what, twenty Intervals?" I laughed. I looked down again, and I saw a few of the Weyrbrats below. One centaurian was with them. "What are they doing so far from the Weyr? Aftran, go down and bring them up here so they can go back to the Weyr." "Can do."
___Chapter 2____Ax____ One of the green beasts came down to the ground, almost on top of us. I didn't know what it was, but it was over the size of a Bug Fighter. And It didn't look like anything I would've wanted to be around. I leaped backward as soon as it alighted. "Come on, Weyrbrats." The girl snapped. "You'll be lucky not to be repremanded by the Weyrleader himself if you don't." <Er...> "Get. On." She snapped. The others quickly filed onto the creature. I followed, getting as good of a grip as I could on the spines. <Where is that good-for-nothing Ellimist?> I wondered to myself. <Right here.> A rag on my shoulder spoke. I saw a few seconds later that it was a small, brown version of the creatures. <Those big ones in the sky are the Dragons, and the humans on them are called Dragonriders. Mostly Men, but a few women get to impress the Greens and even the Gold Queens.> <Well, I suppose these are what you were talking about, but how-> TSEEW! TSEEW! Twin beams lanced through the air, amost hitting a small white one. The Dragons were beginning to turn on the enemy. I looked forward. There were ten Bug Fighters in the air—uncloaked, even— and coming for us. VIsser Three's Bladeship was right behind them, a sleek battle-ax in the sky. <Why aren't they cloaked?> I asked the Ellimist. <Call me Logger, please. And they are. I just turned the cloaks off for you and the Dragons. No one else can see this besides us.> she replied, alighting to my head to cling to one of the stalk eyes. "T'bias! Jakath! D'vid! Vissath!" <Visser? Where?> I snapped. My head turned both ways— a human charactaristic—and nearly shook Logger off. <Calm down. Vissath is the name of that big Bronze right there.> She said, twisting a stalk eye to view. I almost had a good look then, if it weren't that the Green bucked— and I was not holding on.
____Chapter 3____Jake___ "AX!" I screamed as i hung on fro dear life to the dragon. <Help! I don't have wings!> He cried as he hung for a second in midair. The White dragon flew just under ours, and plucked Ax from the sky. Actually, I think he plucked himself from the sky. The one riding the dragon looked exactly like Ax, except a few years older. <Wha? What?> He stuttered as he regained his senses. <I better get you over to Cassath. At least she'll be big enough for you to have a better grip.> The Andalite said, and then flapped over to the Gold, dropping him near the neck. The bug fighters were nearing. They began trying to outmaneuver the dragons, but that was too difficult. Even our Green was bigger than the bug fighters, and were able to dodge a lot better. "Shells! I should've brought a bag of firestone!" The girl sneered as she dove out of one fighter's path. I realized then how close the Blade ship was. It was moving slowly, as in I could've jumped on. The green landed on one of the wings. "Very strange dragon." She muttered. <Forget the big ones! Grab that white one! Yes, the one with the Andalite on it! GRAB HIM!> I could hear the Visser's thought speak from here. He was not in a good mood (was he ever?) and not happy about the dragons. "What's an Andalite? Is the dragon referring to A'mili?" The girl told me. "If he's the one that caught our friend, I guess so. And how can you not know what an Andalite is?" I asked at her, confused. "We just always called them centaurians. I don't know what you call them in these Weyrlands..." "These aren't Weyrlands, and this is not a dragon. It's a-" At that point, I forgot the converstion and Blade ship yanked us off our feet into the air again. I watched for a few seconds as they began to close in on the White. As the dragons...whoops, I meant Bug fighters... closed in on him, a fair distance away from the others. "Aftran! They're about to get A'mili and Marth! Do something!" A brown rider screamed to ours. "How? I can't jump to between! I don't know what to look for!" As the two bickered and tried to catch up, I noticed the Blade ship swoop in and snatch the dragon from midair. "I don't beleive it!" Aftran cried. "That big one swallowed him!"
____Chapter 4____A'mili____ I awoke some hours later. I was laying on the dirt ground, with my dragon nuzzling softly on my neck to wake me up. I tried standing up. I realized in the moment that the two of us had been put in a cell, with simlar kinds around the complex. Many others were in them as well. <This is no Weyr I know of. And no hold I know of, either. Where am I?> I said in particular to no one. <It's about time you woke up.> A unranked centaurian walked toward me. He had a slight frailty of age, yet an evil that seemed very much like the one Vissath gave me when I talked with D'vid. <You and your... beast... have been very... intriguing to us. We would wish to know a bit more then I'm afarid you could tell us at the moment.> <Try me.> I sighed, leaning my upper body against a horizontal bar. FWAPP! He drew his blade toward me. I snatched it our of the air with my hand, then dropped it. <Your follow through needs improvement, and your stance is flexing too much with your tail. Like this.> I said, striking through the bars just an inch from his face. <How the... GUARDS!> He cried. Two creatures that looked much like upright Whers opened the door and dragged me away from Marth. I struggled a bit to walk on my own, but they kept dragging me along. My identification shirt took a tear in it from the grip. They led me to the heart of the cavern, where a leaden pond churned. Small silver eels swam under it by the thousands. I stood on the pier. <This is a rather strange hold.> I told him, in as gentle of a tone as I could without provoking any more of a reaction from him than I already had. <You're a rather strange Andalite. You act like you've never even heard of me before, or you have no idea what's about to happen.> <And I don't. This doesn't quite look like any Gather I've gone to.> I said with a hint of sarcasm. He sneered again with impatience, like he expected me to react differently. <Infest him NOW!> <What?> I said in surprise. The whers pushed my head under the water. The eels bumped into me, but with no avail. they brought me up, and I shook one off my right stalk eye. <Since when-> P-POP! FWA-WHOOM! Marth blinked from between a few feet away from the pier, and burped up some fire at the centaurian. A'mili, he cried to me, this is no place either of us want to be. <Amen to that.> I replied, mounting my dragon. <Remind me to keep a bag of firestone on your straps at all times from now on.> I said as I focused on the forest where we blinked in before. A few moments later, we were there. I received some very disturbing news about that place from one child. Marth told me. We need to find the others as soon as possible.
____Chapter 5____Jake____ We had moved the dragons down towards the mountain edge for the Valley of the Hork-Bajir. It was the only real safe place we could find for a bunch of behemoths. An airplane hanger would've been more appropiate, but we couldn't let anyone else know what was going on. Mainly they had been talking at it about what happened, and what could've gone wrong. Appearently much cooler heads than us, even though Rachel's double happened to be one of them. "Something was wrong about that whole battle. Dragons don't glide over like that; they blink. And there were no visible riders. I can just imagine how one of <i>their</i> weyr's hatchings go abo-" "ENOUGH!" I burst. "You morons actually think those were dragons? They were spacecraft! Spaceships!" T'bias, who I guessed was the general leader, spoke. "You mean like the <i>Buenos Aires</i>? That would explain why there was no rider, but I don't recognize the design." "That's Yeerk spacecraft! Those guys would have blasted you-" P-POP! The White Dragon— the one with Ax's double, who we soon learned was A'mili, appeared clutching to Vissath's neck. "What are you going on there? GET OFF HIM!" D'vid scowled. I didn't like the looks of him— reminded me way too much of David. You don't tend to trust someone that tried to kill you before. <Sorry. I needed a landmark to come from between into, and suddenly I had this vivid image of that scar Vissath got when-> "NO! NO! PLEASE!" He pleaded. "Not in front of the-" <-Jakath beat the blood out of him to fly Cassath. And allow me to say, I have blinked onto prettier spots.> "That explains the tension between those two." Cassie whispered in my ear. <We had just blinked away from what I would have to say was the strangest hold I've ever been in. The Whers weren't in normal coloration and stood on two legs, their prisoners were kept out in the open, and in the center was a strange collection of-> A'mili started. I plowed him down. "Check his ears!" I cried. I scrabbled madly over his head. <Say what?> "I said— Oh." I replied sheepishly as I noticed he had earplugs in. I checked them to make sure that they were tight, and then pulled them out so he could understand me. "Why in the world did you wear earplugs? I mean, we're all grateful for it, but why?" <Do you know how loud thirty Weyrlings get when you try to teach them to fly?> He remarked. Obviously A'mili had a much better sense of humor than Ax would probably ever have. I got off of him, and felt pretty embarrassed for the rest of the time. "Jake, I need to talk to everyone about something." Rachel's double said, pulling everyone and Marth towards the small fire. "We've got trouble. We're not exactly welcome here, which is okay, since the dragons aren't going to be hungry for a while, but the problem is Cassath's turning yellow." "So?" I replied. "SO...." Erek snapped. "When a Queen turns gold that means she's ready to mate. When dragons mate, they fly. And if they fly here-" <We end up dead.> Ax summed. "Exactly." Marco said. Exactly. Marth said in unison.
____Chapter 6____D'vid____ "Can't the two just do it in the valley? I mean, there's enough room." The Rachel from this area said. She was almost as beautiful as the one I knew. But honestly, that outfit... no woman on Pern dared to go outside in pants unless she was a rider. "Not happening." The real Rachel snapped. "The mindwaves sent out during a mating flight are strong. Especially between a Bronze and a Gold. A lot of the ladies get pregnant within a day of them when they're close to the Weyr. I'm not about to risk a bad clutch AND the dignity of those... those..." "Hork-Bajir?" Marco suggested. "Yeah." "So they're flying. Ax can probably whip up a cloak to-"Jake started. <I can't.> "Okay, then the others can keep guard-" "We can't ." "Dammit, then, WHO'S GOT AN IDEA?" He screamed. "You want an idea? Here. I say we blink our tails back to Centaurian Weyr, deal with it there, AND FORGET THE STINKIN' BLACK DRAGONS WITH THEIR STINKIN'-" "THEY AREN'T DRAGONS!" T'bias jumped up and surprised me. "WELL, THIS IS A KNIFE! IF MY SOLUTION DOESN'T WORK I CAN JUST STAB YOU AND THERE WON'T BE A FLIGHT! TWO PROBLEMS SOLVED RIGHT THERE!" I said, reaching to my hilt. ENOUGH! Marth jumped up into the air and landed right on me. As far as I know, their biggest ship is about Jakath's size. Let the two fly. If they get in trouble, they'll throttle the ship. Worst case, they came back with a scar or two. You saw the battle we had with them earlier. Those two were doing just fine. Vissath snarled. Marth snorted in reply. I guess they were using private mindwaves, but it was still obvious what they were saying. "Marth—foot—off—me—" The dragon lifted his foot. I glared at A'mili and T'bias. "What is it?" T'bias asked. "You know what is it. Cassath could be endangered by that flight tommorow. As protection, I must participate in the flight." "Shells, D'vid. I've flown Cassath every flight without some busybody guarding me, and I don't need it now!" "You two never let up." Rachel sneered. "D'vid, you want to fly? Fine. Cassath has overheard the same bickering with your dragons, and they've already agreed. Now do you?" I stared at my Weyrleader, my bondbrother, and my enemy as I decided. I narrowed my eyes. "I do."
____Chapter 7____Tobias____ It was the next day. Their Erek, Aftran, A'mili, Marth, and our Ax lead a heard of deer into the valley for what our doubles called blooding . As usual, I'd be in the air. I was perched up high in the pine tree as two firelizards blinked in right next to me, making the familar p-pop for their entrance. One was the brown that Ax said was the Ellimist in disguise, and the other was a Bronze I didn't recognize. <Tobias,> it spoke, <You know you can't keep watch in your current state.> <Says who?> <Says me. If those two get in too deep of trouble, they can blink back to the valley. Well, Jakath can, at least. But if you do-> <Point taken. So?> <I've brought a real Firelizard for you to acquire.> She said, pointing one of her wings at the bronze. <He won't bite.> She said sarcastically, as I inched over cautiously. She blinked away, allowing me to reach the bronze. it didn't act any more different than it usually did. And in a few seconds, his DNA was mine. I decided to try morphing it. It didn't feel too different, except my feathers melted into a rubbery flesh, my beak softed slightly and extended out a bit. I grew two extra legs where arms should be, and I gained an extra sense of memory. Like everything that bronze had seen, so had I. I flew down where A'mili and Marth stood waiting. He looked worried. I talked with Marth for a bit, although the conversation he expected from me was plenty little. Simply put: the both of them were worried. Marth knew good and well D'vid was seising this opprotunity to become Weyrleader. Marth explained that A'mili was really the only protection that kept T'bias Weyrleader this far. Sure, Erek or Aftran might be able to hold him back, but A'mili was the only one who could threaten D'vid enough to keep him at bay. <You sure Jakath can handle him?> I was one of the eggs that came out of Cassath's first clutch. That was the one when she flew openly, and Jakath and given Vissath that scar and broke his wings. Took six months for those to heal back. Trust me, he can handle him. I hope. It was getting close to the flight. I noticed Rachel on Casath as she began going after the deer. It grabbed one of them by the neck, then seemed to be inhaleing. <Blooding the kill,> I thought to myself. The other two bronzes began blooding as well. Things were beginning to get tense over the field, and everyone knew it. I got into the air, maybe hoping to keep up with them. Then the filght started. Cassath got about fifty yards away from the boys, and then they started flying. About a mile out, far enough away that I was beginning to tire, Vissath and Jakath began to notice that they were still neck and neck against each other. Then the fight started. They began doubling over each other, gaining areas to strike. The two of them were tumbling, but still able to fly and keep up. Another mile was done. I blinked on Cassath's tail just to keep an eye on them. She was sending a major hurricane of wind to me. The two were tiring. Blood streaked through the air where they were, and the only things they were concerned with was that the other couldn't fly her. I began to worry. What if they ended up killing each other? Then I got a startling idea. I blinked off Cassath's tail, this time focusing on Vissath's face. I landed, doubling over and tumbling until I hit his left eye ridge. I started scratching. I had never felt Vissath 'speak', but he was getting a joyride out of this. Later A'mili told me that the eye ridge is a major erogeneous zone for a Dragon. I didn't know that at the time, but what I did know was that my scratching was distracting him enough for him to stop attacking Jakath. Jakath kicked Vissath away, and in about three minutes caught up with Cassath and flew her. And by then, D'vid had figured out I was the reason Vissath was lying on his back and kicking against the trees. He threw a few rocks at the '—— firelizard'. I blinked back onto the emblem of A'mili's ID shirt. <Oh happy days are here again, HEY!> I said. <Did Jakath fly her?> <You bet he did!> <No trouble?> He asked, panting. <Not sure. I just got back. But he flew her, so there shouldn't be any more trouble. Just in case...> and with that, I blinked back to Cassath's tail. <I leave you guys alone for two seconds and THIS is what happens!?!?!?!>
____Chapter 8____(Pern) Rachel____ I heard Tobias. Where he was, I didn't know. He's clinging for his life to my tail. The Yeerks had just surprised us. We hadn't seen hide nor hair of them, and now they were almost rubbing against us. Cassath was hopping up and down on the Blade ship, but she only rocked it a little, and I was beginning to get whiplash. "Cover for me." And with that, I started morphing. It's a trait of any Dragonrider in Centaurian Weyr. All of the others had the same morphs I did: Wherry, Runner, Shipfish, firelizards of various color... but only T'bias, D'vid, A'mili and I had a prized morph: The black pernese sport. It's about Marth's size, except with black scales. The last reported Black was Tezereth, a young girl's dragon from an Impression two years ago. Unfortunately, the girl turned rather brittle soon after, and the Black doesn't fly much anymore. We had acquired her. As soon as I was dragonlike enough for it not to show on the surface, but enough to blink into between, I did. I can morph quickly there, and I popped onto Cassath's nape two seconds later. I got off her neck, and tried to throttle one of the 'bug fighters'. I can see where they got their name. Marth has arrived! Cassath told me. <That's impossible! Both of them said they we'ren't going to interfere at all!> Marth is. He doesn't even have his riding straps on. <No straps? No rider?> A stunning realization hit me. <That's not Marth!> <Heh.> A scourge-like voice sneered. <Took you long enough.> I flew for the Visser. He had the exact same personality as Vissath did, which was one of the main reasons why Cassath resented him every time. Vissath, I mean, not this person. I barreled into him, tumbling through the air until we hit the port wing of the blade ship. I gained back my altitude, and proceeded to hop on the Visser until I either tortured him enough to surrender, or hurt him bad enough that he'd blink into between forever. I got about three hops in when he grabbed my right foot, flipped over, and rabbit-kicked me in the paunch. I cartwheeled to the edge of the blade. One of my wings was snapped. I couldn't get off without falling to my assured doom. <You're mine, dragon.> He sneered. <I don't think so.> I scrabbled against the blade, my claws click-clacking against the metal, up until l reached him again. I noticed Tobias come in behind Vissath, scrabbling around one of his feet. <Get off!> He barked. Tobias started biting, keeping a tight hold on the skin. He stomped his foot up and down, but Tobias stayed, flailing around the Visser's foot. I took the distraction to my advantage, butting the Visser back towards the opening. He scrabbled in, locking it up behind him. Tobias perched on my beak. <He gone?> <You bet your shell he-> FWA-VOOSH! The engines kicked on the ships, and soon they were gone. I was swept off my feet, but Cassath was underwing, and caught me. We flew back to the Valley. "Well? How'd you guys come out?" Erek asked us. He's one of the strangest riders I've ever seen. But he's never been dead, so I guess we would find out the actual life span of a dragon that doesn't depend on his rider dying. <Perfect!> I said, as I morphed back to my true form. "More than perfect. Check out what I picked up!" T'bias said, as he slid down the back of Jakath. Jakath put down a few parts of the bug fighters. <Dracon beams! That IS more than perfect!> Ax said, beaming. <Although they're sort of bulky to carry around, aren't they?> "Who said anything of using them like a pistol? We need them to carve out some weyrs!" <"HUH?>" everyone said in unison. T'bias just gave a small smile. "It's obvious we're not going to get back to Pern, so we might as well. There's some teenagers within those Hork-Bajir — they can provide as Impression candidates." "There's not that many to provide for all the clutches." Jake said. "Besides— I thought we had to get rid of you somehow." OF COURSE NOT! I watched as a tiny brown firelizard grew into a mix of human and Andalite. She glowed. WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT HAVING TO KILL THEM? "Don't erase your words, Ellimist." My double snapped. "You said to neutralize them." AND YOU'VE DONE IT. THEY'RE NO LONGER A HAZARD TO YOUR SIDE. THEY COULD PROVE BENIFICIAL— THEY'RE MORPH CAPABLE, THEY HAVE POWERFUL ALLIES, THE DRAGONS, AND SO ON. "But a new Weyr? Here?" Aftran spoke. YOU'VE GOT DRACON BEAMS. USE THEM. And with that, she vanished. "Well?" I spoke. "We've got a weyr to build. And we need the hatching sands done first! My dragon is going to lay her eggs soon!" And with that, they laughed. ____Chapter 9____Toby Hamee____ Three weeks later.... I stood on the hot, flat sands. Thankfully, it had been a small clutch, only fifteen eggs. And one of them was a Queen egg! There were about an equal number of males and females on the sands, awaiting the hatching. Even a few of the adults awaited impression. There was a minor hum as the few dragons announced the hatching. There were also a few tiny hatchlings of firelizards up in the rafters. Tobias had followed the bronze he acquired to a nook where a batch of fifty eggs awaited us. Only about twenty of them survived. But it was good. KRAK! "Bronze! That's a good sign!" Erek crowed as he watched the bronze butt into one of the boys. And from then it was fast and furious— too fast for me to count. "Kalseth!" "Taikouth!" "Mellenoth!" "Reyzith!" "Xetalth!" And the list of impressed went on. Most of the eggs had hatched— except the queen egg and a small one. The Weyrwoman was beginning to worry. What if the queen didn't hatch? There were only three others besides me that had not impressed. Jen Tamok was a male, and could only hope of impressing the little one, but there were two other girls— Fas Kalet and Koroto Senis. KER-RACK-KACK! The queen burst out of her egg. It looked around for a second, then butted straight into Koroto. "Quototh!" She cried with glee, then ran off the sands and towards the sheer cliff that held the weyrs. The last one didn't break open. Heartbroken, I began to turn, following Jen and Fas. Help! I whipped my head around. I could've sworn that... I leaped over to the last egg. "Forget it! It not hatch!" Jen screamed. I didn't care. there were fifteen eggs in this clutch, there were going to be fifteen hatchlings. "It's stuck." I said. There was an emerging crack, but no more. I began chipping at it with my wrist blade. Softly, surely, the shell was coming off, and there was a tiny black hatchling inside. No bigger than half of my head, but I felt a bond to it. A bond I couldn't explain in words. I carried it to the Weyrleader, T'bias, and showed him the small one. "Its name is Aurenth." I whispered to him. "Its name is Aurenth."
