Enough is Enough (4)

Writers: Kane
Date Posted: 20th March 2026

Characters: S'kawa
Description: S’kawa attends the sunrise Hatching
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 2, day 1 of Turn 13
Notes: Mentioned: S’neik, N’amsa, Neika (NPC), Lathlani (NPC)

S'kawa

The galleries were crowded with people leaning forward over the rail, noise and dragon humming rolling up in steady waves. The atmosphere shivered with potential. S’kawa stood among the crowd with his arms loosely folded, his former weyrmate Neika at his side, their shoulders nearly touching. She had come from Dolphin Cove for the Hatching, alerted by S’kawa’s pair of blues the moment Dragonsfall dragons started humming. Despite all these years, she always made time when one of her children Stood.

A cluster of familiar riders hovered nearby, wingmates old and new, friends, and one of them suddenly barked out a laugh and slapped another on the shoulder as a hatchling barreled toward a candidate further down the Sands.

“Well, there’s one!”

Cheers broke out as the newly Impressed pair staggered off toward the barracks, and the small knot of riders around S’kawa erupted in congratulations. Several of them had kids down on the Sands and each Impression felt personal. Someone clapped S’kawa on the back out of habit, as if success traveled by association.

“Not yours, but close enough," another said.

S’kawa snorted softly but didn’t shake them off.

“Give it time.”

If he was honest with himself, and there wasn’t much point pretending otherwise, he was watching one figure more than others.

Sanneik. With his short, blond tipped curls he was easy to spot.

His eldest moved with a casual steadiness, neither pushing too aggressively toward the eggs nor shrinking from them. The boy.. No. Sanneik was no boy. A young man now. He had waited long enough to earn his chance. S’kawa held his breath as the bronze dragonet tripped in front of Sanneik. The moment stretched, and then snapped into certainty.

The roar that followed came not from S’kawa but from Tectonth. The bronze surged upright in the galleries behind him, wings flaring as he stamped the stone hard enough to rattle benches.

Approval.

Loud and unmistakable.

S’kawa didn’t quite smile but the corners of his mouth shifted as pride settled in his chest. Sanneik had done it. Hands landed on his shoulders, firm handshakes, thumping congratulations now firmly aimed in the correct direction.

“Your boy!”

“Well done, truly worth the wait.”

“Bronze! I knew it.”

Someone reached past him to clasp Neika’s arm as well as the pair of them hugged. Weyrmates no longer but the two remained on good terms. “Finally,” S’kawa murmured.

S’kawa’s attention didn’t linger long on Sanneik while the Hatching still churned forward. Lathlani remained on the Sands, tension tightening in the boy’s shoulders with each passing pairing. S’kawa knew the signs. Lathlani was restless, and not as immune to the grinding effect of failure at Hatchings as Sanneik had been.

Lathlani still stood there. And Naskamek.

“Ahh, now that’s the real question,” one of the riders murmured, leaning forward on the rail. “What are the odds another of S’kawa’s brats Impresses?”

Someone elbowed S’kawa lightly.

“Your middle one’s due. He’s got the look of a dragonrider about him.”

“And if the youngest Impresses,” another voice added with dry humour, “I’m calling it now. Bronze. Future Weyrleader right there.”

That earned a ripple of laughter.

S’kawa just shook his head slightly, watching the Sands again as the remaining eggs shifted.

“Naskamek?” he said dryly. “If that boy Impresses a bronze, Pern’s in more trouble than Thread ever managed.”

The eggs hatched one by one, dragonets finding their lifemates in moments of bliss, till there was just one egg left. S’kawa’s gaze locked onto the cluster of candidates below and one particularly determined figure forcing his way forward.

Last updated on the April 1st 2026

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Enough is Enough (4)