Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows

Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold

Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold

Elsewhere on Pern
NPC Weyr
River Bluff Weyr
Seacraft Hall

Story Listing
Series Listing

Weyrling Training

Writers: Sia
Date Posted: 11th October 2025

Characters: K'valas
Description: Sazikoth chooses K'valas
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 12, day 14 of Turn 12
Notes: Aegaryn included with permission

Darkness. Pressure. A too small world.

For so long, she had known nothing but the weight and warmth of the shell. The slow pulse of her own heartbeat. She would forget it soon enough, but now the shell pressed too close. Her body ached in the way it was twisted, scrunched up to fit. The sound of dragons humming pressed into her space, in the shell and in her mind. Their presences had been soft echoes before, somewhere distant and far away, but now they were almost close enough to touch. Galgaith and Rhalith were nearby, like they always were, two singular points of familiarity among the others she was learning to recognize- Chioneth and Tabanirth and Aluneth and Kyverth and Panghuth and Reveroth and--

Then a crack. She'd stretched too much and broke the shell. She pressed on it again and again. The fresh breath of air hurt. It burned in her lungs and filled her body with motion, with need, with the wild sense that everything was waiting. She pushed hard, claws scraping against the shell, until it split open and the world poured in. Light, sound, heat, scent.

The hum roared through her. The sand stung her belly. She shook herself free of the shell, fragments flying, her new wings dragging at her sides. Her stomach clenched with hunger that she distantly understood as something she must take care of, but that wasn’t what she was truly looking for. She looked up at the dragons high above. She knew them. She was safe with them. She wasn't so sure about all the strange figures watching her.

She hissed at them.

She crouched on unsteady legs and stalked them. Their minds pressed too close. Voices and feelings like ripples on a pond, fleeting and small. She brushed past them, one by one. Each time she reached out, she knew it wasn’t right. Not hers. One of them had the gall to reach for her so she snapped at him.

And then--

That one.

Rough at the edges, sharp and scarred, full of things she didn’t yet have names for. Pain and hunger and stubbornness, and beneath it, the smallest spark of something that refused to die.

Him.

Sazikoth lifted her head. The world blurred at the edges, and she saw only that figure standing still among the white-robed crowd. She didn’t know his name, not yet, but she knew his shape, his scent, the rhythm of his heartbeat calling through the noise.

Her steps wobbled at first, but strength filled her fast. She moved, half run, half lunge, straight through the sand and the gasping voices. She didn’t care who was in her way. When she reached him she collided hard against his legs, claws digging into the sand and the strange white fabric to keep from sliding. Sazikoth felt pain for the first time, as distant as the dragons and not quite belonging to her.

He stumbled backward and she pressed against him, clambering up his front like she wanted to crawl into his skin. Her claws ripped through the front of his white robe like it was nothing and she smelled the faint metallic tang of something in the air that made her empty tummy ache. She trembled with the force of the newly-formed bond.

}: I choose you, Kavalas.:{

The name came with his mind, like a secret he’d never meant to share. And she saw him.

The dark paths of his life unfolded in her mind; hunger, cold, the ache of running, the way he’d built walls around himself so no one could get close enough to hurt him again. She saw his shame, his scars, his fierce defiance of the world that had never wanted him, and she loved him.

She growled low in her chest, pressing harder against him. His arms wrapped around her as he sat up, strong and warm.

}: You're hurting. :{ she said, her tone low and fierce. The rumble in her tiny body could barely be heard over the sounds of the hatching. No one would harm him again. She would be sure of that.

He didn't answer her at first. She felt his heart racing. The hair on his face made her hide itch. She felt his chest rumble and heard the low notes of his voice, though the words were inconsequential. He wasn't talking to her, about something she didn't yet understand. She shoved her snout under his chin to get a look at this stranger he was talking to, the one that her Kavalas held so tightly in his mind. A part of him that ached and hurt. Aegaryn. She didn't like that name.

She hissed. Sazikoth twisted in his arms, every line of her small body bristling with instinct and fury, her eyes flaring red and orange as she tried to lunge for him. Kavalas' grip was stronger than her rage and she found herself caught mid-motion, legs flailing, wings beating in startled frustration.

Sazikoth shrieked as Kavalas hauled her away, thrashing.

Last updated on the October 18th 2025