Gravid Green (Anne McCaffrey's Pern)

[Silkfur]

Chapter 1

Benden Wyre end of the 7th interval

Wyreleader T'lar & Bronze Layneth Wyrewoman Isa & Gold Tabith
Junior Wyrewoman Flista & Gold Sarath Wyrehealer G'lan & Bronze Wilth

Sela & Green Abanth Headwoman Teala

K'soe & Bronze Nagth Finna & Green Samanth

H'tall & Bronze Tonath

L'rand & Bronze Hanth

T’net & Brown Tobith

Fenta & Green Desteth

S'nor & Green Cinth

Fort Hold

Lord Dest

Harper hall

Masterharper Tran

Journeyman Clastan (was Tran's special apprentice)


Finna was rather annoyed when a young apprentice ran into the class when Journeyman Clastan was in the middle of explaining about the proper tune the harp he held should carry. She was very fond of Clastan, he had been the first one to ever kiss her with any passion, and she hated it when he had to stop talking.
"Journeyman Clastan," the boy shouted. "Dragonriders in the field. The wingleader, K'soe, said they ride on search! He requests all the apprentices go outside to be examined!"
Clastan stood and said, with the same air of command that Masterharper Tran often used, "Alright class, please calmly file outside and line up." With a wave of his hand he dismissed the class and a hurried shuffle started up.
Finna's stomach squirmed with excitement and dread. She would dearly love to impress a dragon, but if she did she would have to leave the Harper Hall. She had been an apprentice since she was twelve, she had left her father's hold in upper Ruatha. Now at fifteen-teen, she would be made a journeyman in the spring.
She gathered her things up and followed the crowd outside. When all the apprentices were lined up in a fairly strait line, the Bronze riders that stood in front of then began to speak, "My name is K'soe, and we ride on search. In a minute Abanth and Nagth will examine you to see who is fit to go to the wyre and have a chance at impressing a dragon." With that he stepped aside and Green Abanth and Bronze Nagth walked along the line of apprentices, almost touching them with their noses. Nagath was two apprentices ahead of Abanth.
When Nagth reached Finna where she stood in the middle of the line, she held her breath. Suddenly he swung his head to face Abanth and there was silence. Then Abanth walked over to Finna and got eye to eye with her. When her head rose she dipped her head, closing her inner lids.
The green rider stepped forward and addressed Finna in a light, sweet voice, "Girl, please step forward. The dragons have chosen you." Finna couldn't believe her ears. She had been chosen, chosen over Tilkin, the sturdy boy that stood to her left and as old as Finna. She was rooted to the spot, the only thing that told the riders she had heard them was the way her eyes bulged. Finally Tilkin gave her a slight push and she stumbled forward, to the bronze rider who put a hand on her shoulder. Through her shock she noticed how handsome his face was and how strong he was.
She watched in stunned silence as the dragons finished their examination. Only two others were chosen; young Larand, who had just started his apprenticeship, and Sinor, who was her age.
The bronze rider went over and spoke to Masterharper Tran, and then he came back to Finna and spoke to her and the two boys, "If you impress the Masterharper said he will send along your belongings. You are our last stop, so Larand, you and Sinor will ride to the wyre on brown Ganth. Finna, you will ride on Nagth with me." Only then did Finna see the full wing of dragons on the field behind Nagth. A relatively small number of them looked to have an extra passenger.
K'soe assisted her to Nagth's back and swung up behind her, reaching around her to grasp the neck spikes with one had and raising the other in the sign to lift. At once all thirty-three dragons lifted off. Then he raised his hand in the sign to go between.
Then they were there in the cold black nothingness.

[silkfur]

Chapter 2

They erupted into the air above the wyre. The dragons with no extra passengers glided into land on their own individual wyres. The six that did carry prospective canidits spiraled down to land in the bowl next to the caverns.
Finna had only been in a wyre once and that was to watch her cousin, T'ril impress blue Glith. They had gone to Fort wyre to watch that impretion. K'soe helped her down from Nagth's back with the ease of practice. Again, when she had to put her hands on his shoulders to steddy herself she felt his muscles ripple under her fingers. As soon as they were on the ground she recognised all of the other canidates. Fenta and Clest, Lord Dest's twins; Flista, a Ruathan daughter; and Tenet, a hansom fosterling at Ruatha.
A slim woman came bustling out of the caverns and hearded them inside chattering away at them and chiding K'soe for keeping them outside in the cold, and that all the other cantadits had already arrived and were warming by the fire, trying to get the cold of between out of their bones. He just smiled and walked in after her. Nagth leaped into the air and flew to his own wyre to setle in the sun.
The woman spoke then, "Isa said that the hatching should be later this evening and T'lar said that the cantadits are to see the eggs atleast once before the hatching, so you are to take them to the hatching ground once your charges have warmed up."
"Yes, Teala," was K'soe's response.
So fifteen minutes later all sixty of them were walking to the hatching grounds behind K'soe. His voice boomed back to them, "You are to walk amongst the eggs. You may touch them. There is to be no fighting in the hatching grounds."
Then they walked through an opening and were faced with a clutch of fourty eight eggs, and a queen egg. The cantadits spread out amounst the eggs. The wyre bread were bolder that the others but in time all the canidates were out stroking the the eggs. The queen was not there.
After a half hour they were called in for a midday meal in the caverns, and to wait for the hatching. Finna was chatting with a wyre bread lad named Hatall when she felt the humm vibrating through the floor. One look at Hatall's face told her that was the cue to get the white ropes that Teala had given each of them after the miday-meal, on.
K'soe stood up after their robes were in place, an action that took them all of three seconds, and hearded them back to the hatching grounds. There they stood, rather nervous, infront of the visitores that had been arriving since their departure of the hatching grounds.
As the humm reached it's peak the croud quieted. Finna could see her parents and brother in the middle of the stands. Then an egg shattered, a bronze dragonet stumbled out and mad dash for Hatall squeeking in delight at finding him. The eggs all began to shatter one after another. A green chose Sinor and Larand impressed a bronze. Fenta impressed a green while Tenet impressed a brown. Then a green stumbled out of her egg, squeeking and looking around maddly. The queen broke her shell and stumbled to Flista. Then the green saw Finna and made great hast to close the gap between them. Finna couldn't believe it but she dropped to her knees next to the hatchling craddling her head in her lap. Then a voice spoke in Finna's head, "Hello, Finna. I am Samanth and I am terably hungry." The voice was pleading.
"Don't you worry, I'll get you something to eat right away," and with that Finna and Samanth walked out of the hatching grounds into the bowl and the reast of their lives.