Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 20:38:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: Corrinne S <quasito_cat@yahoo.com>
Subject: The Black Dragon of Pern - Part 4

The Black Dragon of Pern

M.C. Gordon

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

Chapter 10

     Raganth was gone for two days, staying in touch
with his rider through their telepathic connection.
He assured M'chell that all was well and he was on a
quest with the fire lizards, although he never
mentioned what the quest was.  M'chell experienced
momentary confusion for Raganth had never hidden
thoughts from him before.  The magnificent golden
queen assured the dragon rider that there was a good
reason for being elusive and M'chell reluctantly
accepted and stopped asking questions.

     He had plenty to keep him occupied.  The neat
dressings the flyer had done on his injured hands had
shown him that the being had intelligence.  The flyer
had never spoken, his only audible sounds being
various hisses, but M'chell decided to see if there
was a way to open a channel of communication between
them.

     M'chell indicated each object in the cave and
spoke the word for it in their first full day together
following the fall into the ravine.  He carried on a
one-sided conversation, explaining about himself and
his dragon, naming them for the flyer.  He told of
Andren and Julani, his foster-brothers.  His eyes
filled with tears as he explained about D'vis, who had
come to help them, and the death of the twin Tomin.
He repeated words and names and searched for
understanding in the rainbow-hued eyes.  He thought he
could see the beginning of recognition when he
mentioned that it was time to eat and the flyer held
out his hands for another cup of stew and piece of
bubbly pie.

 . . .

     His wing caused him pain, but he hid it from the
strange man who spoke to him with words he didn't
understand.  He knew the man, for that was what the
fire lizards called the creature, was trying to
communicate with him.  He listened carefully and began
to understand what things were called, that there were
words for the thoughts in his mind.  He catalogued
them away, knowing that if the man mentioned a spoon
or cup he would know what it meant.  He understood
that the man was telling him things about where he
came from and who he knew, other men and large dragons
... for that was what the fire lizards called the giant
queen.  And he wondered if there would be a place for
him in the man's life for he was tired of being alone
and searching for his own kind ... fearful that there
were no more like him in the world.  He knew that the
man spoke with the dragon in the same way he spoke
with the fire lizards and wondered if he could speak
with the man in the same manner.  He tried, but the
man didn't `hear' him.

     He accepted the gentle touch on his injured wing
as the man tended to him and acted in return, doing
what he could for the injured hands.  He knew of a
plant that would speed the healing of the burns but it
was on the plateau and he could not fly there until
his wing mended.  His fire lizard friends were off
with the dragon and wouldn't tell him why or he would
have asked them to bring him pieces of the plant.  So
he watched and listened.  The man's voice was
pleasant, sometimes sounding happy ... sometimes sad.
And the feel of the man's body against his own when
they slept was beginning to fill an emptiness in his
heart.

     Raganth and the fire lizards returned on the
third day and M'chell heard his dragon say, "We have
been searching for a clutch of flyer eggs.  We did not
find any.  The fire lizards think the wherries ate all
of them.  I do not think there are any left."

     M'chell glanced at the flyer, knowing that the
fire lizards were telling their friend the same thing.
 He watched the emotion play across the flyer's face ...
disappointment and resignation, deep loneliness and
longing.  Slender fingers brushed away tears that
lingered at the tips of the long black eyelashes.
M'chell looked away, for no man should see the tears
of another shed in sorrow.  Such a thing is personal
and to be shared only if asked.

     "I wish a bath.  And you need to swim in the
ocean," Raganth told his rider to break the tension in
the cavern.  "I can take you and the flyer down to the
edge of the water where the fire lizards will tell you
stories and scrub me clean.  The salt water will help
his wing to heal."

     The flyer was reluctant to mount the golden
dragon but the man's voice was persuasive and the fire
lizards assured him that the dragon meant no harm.  He
sat behind the dragon rider and wrapped his arms
around the rider's firm waist.  He was tall, and even
seated had a clear view of the dragon's massive neck
over M'chell's head.

     Raganth glided down to the beach and landed
softly, aware that the flyer's wings must be treated
with utmost care.  When his passengers had dismounted
the queen lifted himself skyward with strong legs and
flew a short distance away before plunging into the
sun-warmed water.

     M'chell relaxed on the sandy beach and watched
the flyer walk into the water and ease himself onto
his back.  The black wings, supported by the
saltwater, spread wide and the flyer floated easily.
M'chell took a piece of the hide D'vis had given him
and began to write a preliminary account of his
observations to date.

     The saltwater eased some of the ache in the
flyer's injured wing as it stung the edges of the
healing tear.  He summoned some of the fire lizards
and pictured the healing plant for them, asking that
they pull off pieces and leave them in his cave.  He
would gather more later, if the dragon would agree to
carry him to the plateau, until he had enough to use
on the man's wounded hands.

     M'chell paused frequently during his writing and
not alone because of his hands.  The flyer had removed
his loincloth before entering the water and the dragon
rider hoped for a glimpse of what accompanied the
slender yet firm buttocks he'd observed as his
companion walked into the ocean.

     Raganth, thoroughly scrubbed clean by the fire
lizards, lay on the beach sleeping in the
mid-afternoon sun.  M'chell leaned against him, his
writing put aside, and slipped into a peaceful nap.
The flyer, refreshed by his time in the water, allowed
the warm breeze to dry his skin before replacing his
loincloth and joined man and dragon in their sleep.

Chapter Eleven

     With M'chell's gentle urging, the flyer became
comfortable with the constant presence of Raganth and
finally accepted the assistance of the gentle golden
queen to go places he could no longer go with his
injured wing.  Days were spent in learning and
understanding as Raganth flew his rider and the flyer
to the sandy beach or the grassy plateau.

     M'chell's hands began to heal at an alarming rate
once they were covered with the slimy ooze from the
plant the flyer knew had healing properties.  The
dragon rider had objected when the flyer had taken the
pieces the fire lizards had left in his cave and split
them with fine claws for the ooze was repugnant.  But
the flyer had insisted and the first touch of the
slime on his burns had numbed the pain and the red
skin had instantly turned a gentle pink.  Within a
seven-day new skin had completely formed and M'chell's
hands were almost healed.  He made a note in the
journal he was keeping for D'vis, knowing that Andren
would want to have such knowledge for the MasterHealer
when D'vis judged the time right to give his master
what he learned without faulting the dragon rider who
asked his confidence.

     After two seven-days D'vis returned.  He was full
of the usual gossip of Hold, Hall, and Weyr.  He knew
which bronze had flown which queen and what the
disposition was of the various weyrleaders.  The
flyer, who had barely noticed the boy during his first
visit, backed away from the bronze-haired lad.  His
mind was full of thoughts of loss.  The dragon and his
own friends had told him that there were no others
like himself, and his new man-friend showed a deep
affection for the boy that he didn't understand.  The
boy, standing on the threshold of manhood, easily
hugged and kissed the man and lapsed into a
relationship that the flyer could not comprehend.

    As D'vis showed M'chell the provisions he had
brought, including several bubbly pies which could be
easily heated, and memories of blowing on them to cool
them down at gatherings, the flyer backed himself
against a wall of his cave.  Surely there was no place
for him in this man's world, with such memories, and
he had no thoughts of the same for himself.  When his
wing healed he would leave, and then the man would go
away with the boy.  And both of the dragons would be
gone and he would be left to himself with his fire
lizard friends and the endless search for others like
himself.

 . . .

     No one expected the sudden explosion on their
minds as Raganth began to blood his kill.  The rainbow
eyes whirled and turned in a myriad of colors as one
after another wild wherry perished.  Even the fire
lizards felt the outpouring of Raganth's emotions and
the golden and green females blooded their own kill in
the eternal foreplay that existed on Pern.

     M'chell froze.  His mate was no longer his.
Still, Raganth would not allow any other to fly him
but Ammorth.  M'chell would not mate with D'vis, for
the boy was as his son, and he couldn't begin to grasp
the effect on the flyer, so lost was he in Raganth's
mating urge.

     "Telanth and I are leaving," D'vis said, more
than once for M'chell wasn't listening.  "Your flyer
looks on him as a rival."

     "What?" M'chell asked, barely clinging to his own
sense of himself.  "Telanth isn't going to try to fly
Raganth, is he?"

     "Telanth has better sense," D'vis replied.  "I'm
not worried about him, but look at your flyer."

     M'chell was almost startled at the sudden change
in the gentle being he had come to consider a friend.
The rainbow-hued eyes were flashing dangerously.  The
flyer's body language reflected temporary confusion
and then sudden `knowledge'.  He understood Raganth's
need and was responding.  He emitted several
threatening hisses toward D'vis and began to test the
flexibility of his wings within the confines of the
cave.

     "We can't let him try to fly Raganth!" D'vis
cried out.  "His wing isn't strong enough yet, and if
he could fly then Raganth or Ammorth would rip him to
shreds!"

     Between the two of them, M'chell and D'vis
managed to grasp the flyer's wings and pin them to his
body in spite of the fact that the flyer fought
against them.  Suddenly, the flyer relaxed as if he
finally understood that to try to mate with the golden
queen would cause his death.  Feeling the muscles
begin to ease, D'vis loosened his hold.

     And found himself thrown across the cave.  The
none too gentle stop against one of the stone walls
caused his ears to ring and he turned in shock to look
at the flyer, afraid the same thing would happen to
M'chell.  He was surprised to see that the flyer had
taken the rider into a fierce embrace and held firmly
with his wings.

     "It's not Raganth he wants at all," D'vis said.
"He wants you, M'chell, and he sees me as a rival.  If
Trelanth and I don't leave he might try to kill me.
Will you be safe if I leave or do you want me to
summon some of the dragons from the Weyr?"

     M'chell could tell that he was not being held
with any sense of hostility or danger.  The arms that
held him were strong but the embrace was one of
desire.  M'chell was aware of the advanced stage of
Raganth's flight with Ammorth and the flyer's
emotions, as well as his own, were swiftly approaching
the point of no return.  "Go," he said.

     Sincerely hoping that his foster-father knew what
he was doing, D'vis mounted bronze Trelanth and told
his dragon to take them home.  He would return in a
few hours and if M'chell had come to any harm, nothing
would stop the weyr from seeking out and destroying
this creature.

     The flyer had no intention of harming M'chell.
He finally understood the deep longing he'd felt for
companionship.  He knew why the presence of another in
his life had dominated his thoughts for such a long
time.  He'd been frightened when the first waves of
desire swept over him and he felt the golden dragon's
mating urge.  He still wasn't sure of what he was
supposed to do, or why, but he knew that he wasn't
going to let the boy come between himself and the man.
 He needed to claim the man as his own and had let the
boy know he was to go away.

     With D'vis gone, M'chell reached up and gently
stroked the bronzed face of the flyer, easing the head
down towards his own and the first of what he hoped
would be many lingering kisses.  As the flight between
Raganth and Ammorth reached its conclusion, so did the
mating of man and flyer.

     The flyer lay quietly, his body satiated and his
mind at peace for he had found his mate.  His new
lover, his only lover, was lying beside him almost
asleep.  The flyer began to hum, deep and low, his
chest reverberating.  He enjoyed the feel as the
dragon rider ran his fingers slowly across his chest.
The humming increased and he opened his mouth to test
a word, to please this man even more.
"HmmmmM'chhhheeeellll," he whispered and knew he had
done well when he was rewarded with another kiss.

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