Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 18:40:02 -0700 (PDT)
From: Corrinne S <quasito_cat@yahoo.com>
Subject: The Black Dragon of Pern - Part Two

The Black Dragon of Pern

M.C. Gordon

Disclaimer is noted in the beginning of this series.
This story is written for the real M'chell.



Chapter Four

     The flyer was awakened in the early morning hours
by a fair of fire lizards darting back and forth
around the cavern in uncontrolled emotion.  They
projected excited images at him in such rapidity that
his mind couldn't make sense of what they were trying
to tell him.  They pulled at his wings, urging him to
join them.  He was only half awake and hissed them
away but they remained insistent.

     He finally consented to sit quietly and listen,
hoping they had seen another like himself.  He told
them to go away when they showed him images he
couldn't believe.  No fire lizard could be so large,
or have two heads, one so much larger than the other.

     It was raining the deadly rain today and any
exposed clutches would die.  He had fought the tiny
golden fire lizards in the past, tried to explain that
their young would be consumed by the bad rain as he
moved their eggs into the safety of the caves that
dotted the beaches.  He had small scars on his arms to
prove he had tried.  And still the clutches had died.
He finally stopped trying and stayed in his cavern.
He had no intention of going out in this rain on the
whim of over-excited fire lizards to see something
dreamed up by minds that had probably eaten a bit of
over-ripe meat.

     He watched, safely in his cavern, as the silvery
rain fell into the water and writhed until it died.
The fire lizards suddenly grew more agitated than
usual and launched themselves into the sky, breathing
tiny puffs of flame as they ascended ever higher.  He
watched them in morbid fascination, knowing that he
would retreat to the back of his cavern when the first
of his friends screamed in pain and went away, into
the unspeakable cold, never to return.

     He had tried to help them before, but he couldn't
breathe flame.  He couldn't chew the tiny rocks they
did to produce flame and had gotten violently sick
when he tried to swallow the rocks whole.

     He was about to send all the fire lizards away
when one tiny golden queen perched herself on his
shoulder and refused to be dislodged.  She urged him
to look upward and he saw some of his friends about to
be devoured by the bad rain when a huge breath of fire
singed the silvery streaks to blackened ash.  And he
saw what the fire lizards had tried to tell him for
there, on the horizon, was the biggest golden fire
lizard he had ever seen.

     It lacked the two heads the fire lizards had
imagined to him, but the size alone was beyond his
ability to comprehend.  His friends were motes in the
distance but this one, oh this one was so large he
could see the veins in the wings.  And the golden
giant moved as if she knew the best way to attack the
bad rain, how to avoid the silvery streaks.  None of
the fire lizards he knew could do that.  They flew at
random, flaming with no rhyme or reason, and usually
died.  But oh, this glorious golden queen was
different and the flyer wondered if she would agree to
speak to him when the danger was past.  Perhaps she
knew if there was a clutch somewhere with more of his
kind.

     The fair returned to his cavern, chirping out of
control about the new queen.  He had to quiet them
before they began to make sense, dipping into his
small reserve of food.

     He had found a giant fish one day, washed up on
the beach.  It had scraped its belly on a shallow reef
and was dying.  It spoke to him, he thought, or maybe
not.  But he thought he heard it tell him to take the
body, when it died, and pack it with sand to dry it.
He had done as the fish had told him, `phin it called
itself, and when he could not hunt for his own food he
nibbled.  It was what was left of the `phin that he
gave the fire lizards.

     When the fair was sated, he asked if they would
see if they could find the giant gold with him, and
ask if the queen would meet him.

     Chapter Five

     M'chell sat fidgeting nervously in the small cave
he had found for shelter from Threadfall.  He'd been
in the thick of things since Raganth was old enough to
fly him against their enemy.  But his hands hadn't
completely healed and he knew he wouldn't be able to
hold himself on his queen's back or survive the quick
trips between until he had recovered completely.  He
knew, without Andren's warnings since the fire, that
his hands would be permanently damaged in the
unspeakable cold.

     The long, straight flight to the southern
continent was interrupted only long enough to stop at
Nalebad Weyr and see L'del.  M'chell realized, seeing
his former lover after so many years, that he had long
since accepted that their partnership over.  L'del had
asked him to stay the night and the two sat until the
early morning hours, reminiscing over the years at
Edmon Weyr.

     "I hear Davis Impressed a bronze," L'del finally
said.

     "Andren wasn't very happy about it," M'chell told
him.  "He still thinks healers shouldn't Impress.  But
D'vis reminded him and Julani that he had promised to
be a bronze rider for Tomin.  And he handles both
responsibilities well.  The last I heard he's going to
Base Hold as soon as finishes his journeymanship."

     "How are Andren and Julani?" L'del asked.

     "Happy together," M'chell said.  "Do you remember
that beautiful music the fire lizards sang that day in
the cave when we found those ancient artifacts?
Julani's still trying to write it down but you know
fire lizards, it's hard to get them to concentrate on
anything for very long and he gets frustrated.  I can
always tell when he's been trying because he
eventually gives up and stomps through the weyr in
disgust.  Even Andren avoids him."

     They said their goodbye's the next morning and
M'chell finally admitted to himself that he was
pleased to see L'del happy.

     The rest of their journey to Southern was
uneventful but M'chell was startled by the beauty of
the flora when they finally arrived.  Trees, grass,
and flowers covered the landscape in abundance and
M'chell had the dragon rider's fear of what Thread did
to organic matter.

     "Maybe Thread no longer falls here," Raganth
remarked.

     "Thread falls everywhere," M'chell responded and
wondered if he would be able to find a place to live
when Threadfall shifted south.

     They settled on a sandy beach and M'chell
retrieved a meat pie from the pack on Raganth's back.
He relaxed in the gentle warmth of the sand, enjoying
the sound of waves from the great ocean as they rushed
toward the beach.  Raganth, who loved being in water
almost as much as he loved M'chell, dived into the
water and was very pleased to find many edible types
of fishes.

     They had been napping in the peaceful warmth when
Raganth suddenly woke and started crunching the small
supply of firestone M'chell had packed, just in case.
Threadfall was visible over the ocean and moving
rapidly toward them.  M'chell had located a few small
caves near the shoreline, always the dragon rider with
his mind on Thread, and quickly retreated to the
largest one for safety.  He knew Raganth would be
safer in the sky, fighting Thread, than he would be on
the ground, but it was difficult for him to look out
the small opening and see his dragon fight Thread
without him.

     When Thread had passed M'chell was trying to
scrub Raganth from fire stench and ashes, and having a
very difficult time of it with his hands, when a fair
of fire lizards burst into the air over them and
attacked the golden queen's hide with a frenzy.  They
chirped merrily to themselves as they scrubbed Raganth
clean, once they realized there was no threat, and
looked curiously at M'chell.

     "They say they don't remember me being this big,"
Raganth told his rider.  "How could they remember me
at all if they never saw me before?  And they want to
know if we will help find a clutch of flyer eggs."

     "What do they mean by `flyer'?" M'chell asked and
suddenly found himself surrounded by fire lizards
projecting blurred images at him.

Chapter Six

     M'chell woke in the middle of the night, his
hands in agony.  He'd had a nightmare about the
holder's family and thrashed around in his small
cavern, banging his hands about.  Blood was oozing
through the linen wrappings.  He removed the linen and
reached for the small pot of numbweed.

     It was difficult, this business of tending to his
own injuries.  Raganth hovered outside the small
cavern, his golden head bobbing back and forth as he
crooned encouragement.  The linens came off painfully,
pulling away newly formed skin and M'chell clenched
his teeth together to avoid screaming before he
remembered that no one was around to hear him.

     Outside the cavern Raganth hissed and a loud hiss
followed in response.  M'chell was unaware of the
sound because a fair of fire lizards suddenly popped
in and seemed to be inspecting him.  He was about to
immerse his hands in the numbweed when something else
appeared from between.

     M'chell sat in stunned silence as the man stooped
near him in the semi-darkness.  He gazed in wonder at
the unexpected stranger.  The face was long with
deep-set eyes that were, at the moment, a peaceful
bluish-green framed by thick black lashes.  Full,
sensuous lips pursed in concentration as the man
studied M'chell, examined him with a combination of
fascination and doubt.

     The dragon rider glanced away as he realized the
stranger was clothed in only a skimpy loincloth which
showed a great deal of dimpled hip and thigh and
didn't begin to provide adequate cover for the
wrinkled sac which had slipped from the wherry hide.
The handsome man crouched down, appearing to balance
his weight on his toes, and rested his forearms on his
thighs.  M'chell's eyes were drawn to the fine-boned
hands dangling between his visitor's thighs and he
suddenly noticed that the fingers didn't end in
ordinary fingernails.  They looked more like fire
lizard claws.

     M'chell began to scoot away from the mysterious
being, pushing himself along the floor of the cavern
with his feet.  He reached for his dagger when he felt
the cavern wall against his back, but it was lying
near the small fire he'd started when he woke.  His
burns were now filled with dirt from the cavern floor
and throbbed, sending signals of overpowering pain to
his brain ... and he cried out in a combination of pain
and fear.  He fainted when the stranger rose and
stepped closer to the fire, exposing the sight of long
black wings which had been hidden in the shadows.