Pern is Your Mollusk

Writers: Corrin, Yvonne
Date Posted: 29th May 2026

Characters: N'kyri, Donnise
Description: N'kyri visits Donnise in the Infirmary after the Hatching.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 2, day 1 of Turn 13

N'kyri

She could hear him before she saw him.

"Donnise!" The voice boomed through the infirmary, inappropriately loud and jovial. "Donni? Where's my girl?"

N'kyri cut through the infirmary, brushing off disapproving aides that tried to stop and hush him. He poked his head through doors and curtains and made a general nuisance of himself until he found where the injured weyrlings had been taken. "Donnise!" he roared, stepping into a room to see his daughter on the ground, gently tugging her new dragon's forelegs while Zheverith's eyelids drooped with exhaustion.

She brightened when she saw N'kryi and scrambled to her feet. Her one foot was swathed in thick bandages and her sandal was barely hanging on. "Guess you can't get rid of me now!"

"Get rid of you?!" N'kyri laughed and hugged her fiercely, planting a kiss on the top of her head. "Now why would I want to do that? I've been telling anyone who'll listen that you're my daughter. That my Donni is the latest girl to win a blue. I couldn't be happier or prouder!"

Something small and bright and warm blossomed in her chest as Donnise hugged her father back. Maybe she hadn't screwed up by Impressing. "Thanks." Her voice was muffled by his shoulder.

}:Who is this?:{ Zheverith roused himself enough to nudge N'kryi in the back of the thigh. }:You like him.:{

Donnise untangled herself from her father's arms to kneel by her new dragon. Throwing her arms around Zheverith's slender neck she beamed at N'kryi. "This is Zheverith! I can't believe we both have blue dragons!"

"Well, blues _are_ the greatest, as you know. And like attracts like." Crouching to get level with the young dragon, N'kyri offered a friendly hand to skritch his chin. "Hello, Zheverith," he said. "You picked the best candidate on the sands."

Warmth blossomed in her chest as Zheverith gave N'kyri's hand a sleepy bump with his perfect, slender little snout. "He says he likes you."

"He has good taste." Looking from the blue to Donnise, N'kyri couldn't help but grin at the happiness he saw on her face. It seemed like it wasn't that long ago that he had felt that happiness himself and yet, looking at his daughter, at her small, wonderful dragonet, it struck him that it was quite some time since his own Impression. How had the Turns passed so quickly?

Clearing his throat with a little cough, he shoved away that glum realization. "He's small now, but he'll grow fast. You two will be flying and betweening across Pern in no time. I'll show you the best spots-- which holds have the finest gathers, which beaches to hit up in the north when it's winter down here... Dragonriding is the best life there is, even in the Pass. You'll see. The whole world is your mollusk now."

**We're going to go _everywhere_,** she told Zheverith, who nestled his head into her side. She'd been dreaming of flying since she was old enough to know what a dragon was. Donnise hugged her little blue dragonet a little tighter. Weyrlinghood was going to take _forever_. "I can't wait. But I also have to get him to the weyrling barracks. Can you carry Zheverith for me?"

"I would be honored. C'mere, little chap."

Donnise limped after N'kyri as he staggered out of the Infirmary, her eyes firmly fixed on the sway of Zheverith's tail. The dragonet had fallen asleep with his head draped over N'kyri's shoulder. Had Oriath ever been so small?

**You'll grow,** she told her dragon. **You'll be bigger than Oriath in no time, and we'll fly all over Pern together. We'll be a family.**

Last updated on the June 4th 2026

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Pern is Your Mollusk