The Glimmer of Silver and Gold

Writers: Stasha
Date Posted: 12th March 2008

Characters: Alasha
Description: Alasha witnesses her first Thread Fall, and contemplates what she will Impress if she does.
Location: Amber Hills Hold
Date: month 8, day 20 of Turn 4

It was coming, she could feel it, Alasha thought as she made her way cautiously to the mouth of the cave. Everything was silent through out the snow covered hills. It was as if all the creatures knew the danger that was approaching so they found their hidden sanctuaries. How did they know? Was it a wild intuition? Foreknowledge? A scent in the atmosphere? Alasha inhaled the sweet air of the evergreens, and caught the smell, the subtle stillness that permeated it. It was coming...
The fall.

An ancient fear protested at her natural curiosity and demanded her to retreat back into the safety of the cave, but she had to see it.
Alasha found her way just outside the cave to a bolder that jutted out of the ground. Once she climbed onto the small monolith she sat down and fanned her dress neatly around her. It was still safe, she told herself, as she cautiously studied the ledge that passed over her head. She measured it with her eyes and knew there were several arm lengths to spare, yet the fear continued to persist. Go back! the fear cried out to her. But she fought the primitive instinct. She would hold her ground.

"Trill?" Zephyr asked her an unknown question with his musical note.
He nudged her with his muzzle before he licked her ear with his tongue.

"Hey," she laughed back at the little beast. "Cut it out."

The bronze flit only whistled back before he stroked his head affectionately against her neck. However, Zephyr's bright spirited emotions drastically altered as he sensed it, the old enemy, the ancient enemy. His tender whistles and chirps turned into a deep warning hiss that made the hair rise on the back of Alasha's neck.

On the horizon were the boiling haunting clouds of thread. Alasha felt her body revolt back as the urge to flee became harder to fight, but she remained on the bolder, tugging at the course green fabric of her dress as she fought her fear. She had to watch. Her body began to tremble, she was too close, but she held on. She knew the ledge would protect her.

Zephyr wrapped his tail around the back of Alasha's neck as his eyes settled into their combative reds. He was ready to fight, and as the leading edge of thread approached he cried out a challenge. Let it come! He would protect Alasha. Again, another bugle released from him.

Alasha felt the anxious rustle of Zephyr's wings against her hair and neck, but her eyes remained focused to the sky watching, waiting until she saw it.

Streaking, striking silver strands fell in the distance only to be consumed by the bursts of the fire that erupted from the dragons' mouths, yet she could barely see them. The great beasts seemed like mere firelizards as they fought the battle in the distance, sheltering the lands from the danger. As they edged closer, however, Alasha finally saw the dragons in their true glory. She began to depict the greens from the blues, and the browns from the bronzes. They were agile and graceful, and stead fast in their strength and courage.

The fall was becoming clearer now as the leading edge came into full view and the horror of battle began to unravel itself before her.
Alasha gasped as a young blue was laced with thread and began to tumble out of the sky, screeching out in agony. Her stomach lurched into her chest as Zephyr called out in distress to his injured cousin, but the blue's savior came. A large brown dove down after him, and settled his body just under the blue dragon, securing him before they jumped /between/. Alasha sighed in relief for the daring rescue, before she turned her eyes back to the sky.

Was her family up there? Alasha peered amongst the wings attempting to distinguish Neloneth's hide from the other browns, and the reddish bronze hue of her father's bronze. Was Nicala up there too? She tried to find her cousin's green, but there were so many. Her uncle, A'nery?
Maybe her grandfather, A'rey? Or maybe her grandmother, Orena. Yet, there were too many dragons for Alasha to spot them. Endless greens, countless blues, so many browns, and even the bronzes were numerous, but...

Her heart caught in her throat. Did she see a gold? A beautiful gold that glistened in the distance like a sun that gleamed over a dawning horizon? Her eyes attempted to find the queen again. She longed to see her again, and then there she was. The magnificent creature came into view once again as her rider sprayed fire from her flame thrower, turning thread strands into harmless ash. Then there was another queen!
And she was just as hauntingly beautiful as the first queen she saw.
Alasha brought her knees to her chest as she witnessed what so few would ever see: Queen dragons fighting thread.

She wanted to be one of them, flying alongside with the honor of battling thread and protecting Pern. Again Alasha longed to fly on dragon back, and for the first time in her life her heart coveted a gold. What did queen dragons search for in their riders? Alasha wondered as she mulled over the slim possibility of Impressing a gold.
Was it the size of their heart, the strength of their courage? Or was it something else, something that eluded the human eye; a unique trait that only a queen dragon could sense. For a brief moment Alasha allowed herself to divulge in the idea of what it would be like to Impress a queen dragon as she watched the two golds fly over her.
Could it be possible that she had that hidden gift? That gift that would make a young queen desire her over all the other girls on the sands?

The queen dragons and the rest of the wings disappeared from view along with any dream or aspiration Alasha had to Impress a queen. She had to stand first, she reminded herself, before she could ever think of Impressing a gold dragon. There had to be a queen egg present in order to Impress one, and queens were few and far between. Besides, the possibility of the next clutch at Dragonsfall having a queen egg was slim, and she wondered if she could wait that long for one to bare itself on the sands. In the end, Alasha knew that she had no choice in what she would Impress, if she ever did. Whether the dragon was a glimmering queen or a lovely green it did not matter, because that dragon would be all that mattered to her, despite the hue on their hide.

"Alasha?" Her mother called from the cave.

Zephyr chirped back while Alasha glanced over her shoulder to see Murasha.

"Is it over?"

Alasha nodded in response. Thread had passed over them, and it was now safe to continue on their journey to the Weyr.

Soon, she reminded herself as she stood back to her feet and stared over the hills into the beyond. Her time was coming, and like her family, she would stand on those sands. After everything that had happened, Alasha now knew she had to be destined to become a dragonrider. Someday she would Impress, fulfilling this destiny.
Someday Alasha knew she would finally fly free on either green or queen wings.

Someday...

Last updated on the March 12th 2008

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The Glimmer of Silver and Gold