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I awoke with a start, and was completely disoriented. The last thing I remembered was the sight of the rapidly approaching ground as we made an emergency crash-landing on the third planet of the Rukbat System.  And now here I was, lying in one of several beds at one end of what appeared to be a large stone cave. The sturdy looking beds around me had patchwork coverings, and were surprisingly comfortable. There was even a soft white fur of some kind laid on top of my coverlet.  Nearby, a fire crackled in an open hearth, and I could hear people moving about somewhere in the distance.

My eye caught movement on the ledge above the hearth, and I lay there in amazement as I found myself being watched by what I could only describe as a small gold lizard with whirling iridescent eyes. The small being stared at me for a moment, made a crooning noise, as if it wanted to comfort me, and then right before my eyes, it disappeared. I shook my head trying to figure out if I was truly awake, or if I was still dreaming.

I was even more certain that this must still be a dream when I looked to my right, and realized that I was also being watched be a very large, very blue dragon lying curled on a large stone platform!

The dragon raised its head and looked at me, and I heard a voice say, “You should not worry. They say you will be well.”

As I looked around, trying to figure out who had spoken, an elderly man with a fringe of white hair pushed aside a tapestry and came into the room. Around his neck clung the small gold lizard that I had seen earlier, or one like it at any rate.

“My little Orlin let me know you had awakened,” the elderly man said as he sat down on the edge of my bed. The lizard chirped, as if in welcome, and coiled itself more firmly around the man’s neck, claws digging into the braid that decorated his tunic.

“Can you tell me your name?” the man asked me.

“My name is Lieutenant Jerred Columbi,” I replied, conscious of being watched on both sides by lizards, large and small.

Again I heard that strange voice, which said, “I am Coranth. This is where I live.”

“Where am I?” I asked, trying to sit up. The pain from my sudden movement took my breath away and the older man moved closer.

“Easy, now young man,” he said, placing a hand on my chest. “You must not struggle. You’ve cracked several ribs.”

“What is this place?” I asked, still bewildered by finding dragons and caves on a planet thought to have been settled for generations now.

“You’ve been brought to Benden Weyr so that we could see to your wounds. The others from your craft are being similarly taken care of, although the other man who was piloting your ship has more serious injuries and has been taken directly to the Healer Hall for intensive treatment.”

With the other man’s help, I sat up gingerly, and the Healer propped some pillows behind me for support, saying, “My name is Grisbee, and we’re going to get you well in no time. I’m sorry if things seem topsy turvy to you, but with the Impression so close, things are very rushed today.”

Suddenly, through the tapestry came a young woman, dressed all in leather. She was pulling a close-fitting helmet off her head and shaking out her blonde curls as she called out, “How’s our patient, Grisbee?”

“Awake, and alert, a bit frustrated and rather confused, if my faculties are still what they were,” Grisbee said with a grin, and patted my leg.

“The Weyrleaders have sent for the Masterharper. I’m sure they will have questions for our patient once their other obligations have been seen to.”

“I suppose it’s time for introductions,” Grisbee said, looking between me and the woman. “Minta, this is Lieutenant Jerred Columbi. Jerred, this is Minta, the Dragonrider who brought you here from your vehicle’s crash site. Minta began her training at the Healer Hall, and after her Impression, she has continued to use her talents when other Dragonriders are injured. She brought you here to her little dispensary, and looked after you until I arrived from the Healer Hall.”

“A few cracked ribs are not that unusual around here,” Minta said with a smile.

“Thank you, Minta, for seeing to my wounds. I hope the others of my team have healers that are equally attractive,” smiling back at her.

“I begin to think I am not needed here,” Grisbee said with a laugh as he checked my bandages one last time.

He was right about my state of confusion. It was only natural, I supposed, when landing in the middle of a foreign culture. I had so many questions to ask; I hardly knew where to begin.

I finally blurted out, “Can I ask a question? Can you tell me who Coranth is? I keep hearing this voice. I don’t think I struck my head during the crash, but I can seem to explain…”

Grisbee and Minta looked at each other for a moment before responding.

“You can hear Coranth? What did he say?” Minta asked me.

“First the voice said not to worry, that I would soon be well, and then it said it lived here. I guess I’m not really sure where here is.”

Minta turned to stare at the dragon, who had been lying curled up watching us this whole time. She seemed to stare at it for a moment, and then it raised its head. She laughed then, turned to me, and pointed at the dragon.

“That is Coranth, heart of my heart. He says you have interesting dreams, and asked me if you really came here in a metal bubble.”

“A dragon spoke to me? And it could see into my dreams? What kind of fardling civilization is this?”

“Patience, Jerred. We will get you well, and all your questions will be answered. And I’m sure we will have questions for you. But right now you need to rest.”

The healer poured a cup of some steamy liquid that was being kept warm on the hearth and added some liquid from a small flask he had brought with him.

“Some warm wine, with a bit of something to help you sleep. You drink that, and I’ll be back in the morning to check on you,” Grisbee said, handing me a stoneware mug.

It did not take long before I fell into a hazy sleep, and when I awakened the next morning, I found the Healer’s gold lizard lying at the foot of my bed, with its head propped up on my leg. Coranth was not there, but soon afterwards, he landed on the ledge at the far end of the room through which I could see blue sky. Minta slid off the dragon’s back, and her blonde hair caught the sunlight and glowed around her head. As she came towards me I could see that she was not wearing the leather riding clothes from yesterday but had on a long green tunic with matching trousers, which was richly embroidered in blue and silver threads.

“Good morning,” she called as crossed to a wooden cupboard on the opposite side of the hearth. She pulled out a bundle of fabric and crossed to my bedside.

“Good morning, Minta,” I said.

“Did you sleep well?” she asked

“I did. I’m not sure what that stuff was that Grisbee gave me, but it really did the trick.”

“Fellis juice mixed with a little Benden Red, “ she said shooing the lizard, Orlin off the bed. It flew in a circle over our heads, and then disappeared.

“How does it do that?” I asked.

“Just one of a fire lizard’s many talents,” Minta replied. “I thought if you were feeling up to it, Coranth and I might take you down for the morning meal in the Lower Caverns, that you might like to see something of Pern other than the inside of my Weyr.”

She handed me some loose trousers and a soft tunic that I slipped into when she went into what I assumed to be her personal quarters. I had a bit of trouble getting the tunic on over my head as my ribs were still protesting when I moved my arms too much, but the pain was much more manageable than it had been the day before. My own boots were sitting next to my bed, and I pulled them on and waited with some impatience, as I was eager to see this planet I had unexpectedly ended up on.

As we approached Coranth who was sitting on the ledge, I could see that we were in the middle of what once must have been a volcanic crater.

“I’m glad I don’t suffer from a fear of heights,” I told Minta as we gazed out at the busy grounds beneath us.

“Wait until you’re dragonback. Then we’ll put that to the test,” she said smiling and turned to her dragon. “Would you take Jerred and I to the Lower Caverns, Coranth?” she asked her dragon.

He peered at me, and then crouched down.

“Let me show you how this is done,” she said, and swung herself up onto the dragon’s back using the dragon’s leg, and the leather straps it had around it’s neck. “You’ll need to be careful that you don’t strain your ribs, but I’ll give you a hand up and you’ll sit behind me.”

With Coranth and Minta’s help, I soon found myself seated on the back of a dragon, holding on to the ridges on his spine.

“Hold tight,” Minta called, as Coranth bunched under us, and suddenly we were airborne. It was magnificent. Coranth flew a wide circle around the crater, wheeling and dipping a few times to maneuver around other dragons. I saw all colors of dragons in the air, and there were flocks of those little flying lizards zipping around as well.

Suddenly I heard Coranth speak to me. “You will not want to fly in a bubble again?” he asked me. I was trying to figure out how to respond, when suddenly all around us came a humming sound. I could feel Coranth joining in as we flew across the grasslands at the far edge of the crater. All of the dragons and their riders, and even the people we could see on the ground below were now all headed towards the terraced end of the Weyr.

“Change of plans,” Minta shouted over her shoulder, and we turned to follow the other dragons.

Coranth landed us in a wide, open, paved yard, and Minta helped me down.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“The Impression is starting,” she said. “We can’t miss that.”

Coranth launched himself into the air and headed for the rim of the crater along with many other dragons. Were they too going to watch whatever was going on, I wondered.

“You keep talking about this Impression. Can you tell me what it is?”

“The eggs, Jerred. The queen dragon’s latest clutch of eggs is about to hatch. Follow me, and I’ll explain everything when we get there.”

Minta lead me into an enclosure with many levels carved into the rock walls.  We slid into the lowest level of seating, closest to the entrance and watched as some youngsters in white robes were led barefoot out onto the sands. There, guarding her eggs was a golden dragon, glinting in the sunshine and looking none to happy.

“That’s the current Benden Queen, Myrinth. It’s an auspicious clutch with three queen eggs. They’re the ones with the golden hue you can see there off to the right, “ she said pointing. The rest are bronze, brown, blue and green, but there’s really no way to tell what color dragon will come from what shell. The gold and green dragons are the females; the other colors are the males. Impression almost always follows gender lines, but Coranth and I are an exception, which sometimes happens. We say the dragon chooses the rider, and the dragon is always right.”

We sat watching as the dragons above us continued their humming and the crowds formed to watch the ceremony. There was some good-natured wagering going on in the crowd around us as to what color egg would hatch first. When one of the queen eggs started rocking, a hush fell over the crowd, and the humming ascended to a higher pitch. Several of the eggs were rocking, when one of the queen eggs split open with a crack. In the sudden silence, the girls standing on the sands stepped forward as the little golden dragon flopped around a bit, before finding its legs and looking around at the girls. It headed straight for the girl with long red hair hanging down her back in a braid, and the girl cried out, “She says her name is Parath!”

“The first egg a queen. This is good day. And the red-headed girl is from the Southern Weyr, I think,” Minta said. “Impression is such a wonderful thing. To know that you will never be alone again…”

She trailed off as she watched the other girls who were helping a green dragon, which picked the one with the short dark hair. The male dragon eggs were cracking open as well, and there was a bit of a flurry when several of them broke open at once, and the boys were trying to help the little dragons. A bronze, and then a brown Impressed on two blonde haired boys, but there seemed to be a problem with another little bronze colored dragon. It had managed to fight its way out of its shell, but after wandering around amongst the youngsters it couldn’t seem to find what it was looking for.

“Is there something wrong with that bronze,” I asked Minta. “He seems lost.”

I leaned forward to see what was going on, and suddenly, the bronze looked at me, and I heard it say, “My name is Sulith. I am very hungry,” as it came towards me. Minta was staring at me, and at the dragon.

“It says it’s hungry. Why isn’t anyone doing anything to help it,” I said, pulling myself up by the railing.

Minta stood next to me. “Jerred, is that dragon speaking to you? Can you hear it like you can hear Coranth?”

“He says his name is Sulith. Can’t we do something to help him?”

“You must go to him Jerred. You must help him across the hatching grounds to the men over there.”

She pointed to some men in leather tunics who were helping the youngsters who had already Impressed to feed their dragons from wooden bowls.

“I don’t understand,” I said.

“The dragon is always right, Jerred,” Minta cried. “Go to your dragon.”

“My dragon?”

“You must help him to eat, or he will die,” she said pushing me towards the steps.

I stumbled across the hot sands, and I could hear people in the crowd behind me asking Minta what was going on. But all I could think of was the little dragon who needed my help. I rushed up to Sulith, who butted me with his head, saying again, “I am very hungry. You were so far away.”

“I am here now,” I said leading the little dragon across the hot sands towards the feeding station.

“He says his name is Sulith, and he is hungry,” I said dazedly to the men with the meat who handed me a bowl of food and showed me how to feed him.

The led us to some small chambers, a smaller, simpler version of Coranth’s weyr, and as Sulith finished feeding, he rested his head on my shoulder and said, “I love you Jerred. You came from so far away to help me. I will be with you always.”

As I stared at this little creature, I felt for the first time, completely loved. I knew that my future would be very different from what I had imagined. But at that moment, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.