Who Did You Become?
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
Writers: Aaron
Date Posted: 13th October 2026
Characters: H'yazi, Hayarall
Description: H'yazi finally returns to the cothold where everything changed for him-- bearing gifts, of course.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 1, day 1 of Turn 13
Notes: A brief conversation occurs in the sky over DFW with an NPC watchrider en route to H'yazi's destination.
They would not have been home for Turn's End. They always spent the celebration with their extended families at Dragonsfall Weyr, farther than a day's runnerback ride from home. Hayarall's land had been in his family for generations, since the days of the Weyrhold at Dragonsfall, though his cot itself was newer. His grandfather had built that.
He had brothers, of course-- nieces, and nephews and the like scattered around on the land their forebears had worked to tame. Most of them were herders, too. But Hayarall would be the first holder in his line without a direct heir since their forefather had claimed the land. They had never been able to have children of their own, but at least the land and the herds would stay in the family.
Hayarall had talked about it a lot while they were working during the day. Never where Liazi could hear if he could help it.
H'yazi had no desire to try to track them down at the Weyr, or to interrupt their celebration. More than that, he could hardly stand to face judgment from the two of them, let alone the rest of their family, for what he did. And he did not have a gold firelizard egg for all of them.
---
}:You know, ah...:{ said Iarlath. }:It occurs to me that neither you nor I have the faintest idea of what this land looks like from above.:{
**No, that's true. But we can get to the Weyr. And we can ask directions from there. You're much faster than a runnerbeast.**
}:I am, aren't I? Still, that's going to be quite the trip.:{
**Maybe we can find a dragon there who has flown sweeps over the territory and knows the visualization.**
}:Hmm, clever.:{
The watchdragon was much less excited to help than H'yazi had hoped.
}:You there! Who are you? What do you want?:{ she barked.
}:Oh! Uh, well. I'm Iarlath, and this is--:{
}:I mean where are you _from_?:{
}:Well, you see, strictly speaking, I suppose we're from Dolphin Cove,:( said Iarlath.
}:I knew it, I _knew_ it! You younguns from the coast all think you can fly here and stir things up and demand your answers and throw your punches, don't you?:{
}:I haven't the foggiest idea what you mean. We have no business here. We just need your help to find the place we need to go.:{
**What are they saying?**
}:Shh.:{
}:All right, where are you going then? 'What do you want?' I say.:{
Iarlath explained the situation to the cranky old skeptical green, and though it took quite a bit of describing where the cothold was and some persuading -- read, light begging -- to convince her to show them, she pulled the visualization from her rider's mind and sent it to Iarlath.
}:Lovely. A pleasure to speak with you, madam. A thousand thanks.:{
---
It was one of the nephews who first spotted Iarlath and ran to meet him as he landed. H'yazi had worked with him and the others during the days, though they had typically all gone home to their own cots in the evenings after the work day. His parents had watched that pattern, learned exactly who would go where and when. They had known when none of them would have been close enough to stop the rustlers from stealing the herd. And they would not have been, if it had not been for H'yazi's last minute warning.
The moment the nephew recognized the dragon's rider, the excitement melted off of his face, leaving only a skeptical frown.
"What do _you_ want?" he demanded. Even as he did, more of them noticed them and ran to meet them. H'yazi shifted the heavy pot of sand containing the golden egg in its sling around his neck.
"I just came to talk to Hayarall and Liazi." He did his best to stand tall and not let his voice waver.
"Why would they want to talk to you?"
"Now, lad, I think I can make that call for myself."
H'yazi had imagined what it would be like to hear Hayarall's calm, deep, comforting voice again. But now it bore some of the same skepticism in his nephew's.
"I never thought I'd see your face again, Kellever. Least of all coming adragonback. I suppose it's K'ver now? Maybe K'lev?"
"A-actually..." It was too early to tell them what name he had chosen. "No, sir, that's not my name. It... It never was."
"Ah, of course. No one I talked to had ever heard of any Kellen or Veritine, either. Well. To what do I owe the pleasure, Master Dragonrider?"
"Please. I-- I came because I wanted to tell you how sorry I am."
"Mm." Hayarall folded his arms. All the other young men stood beside him, scowling in a closing ring around H'yazi, though they backed away a step or two when Iarlath leaned his head in beside him.
"It's easier to hear those words knowing you saved my herd. I wish you'd have spoken up a little earlier. A herding canine as good as Talon is hard to come by." His tone was strange. Probing? Needling? H'yazi's eyes misted. He had loved that canine.
Hayarall waited a moment, watching H'yazi's face intently.
"Nothing to say about your father?"
"W-what?"
"I expected a little more fire from you, bringing up a dead canine before a dead man. He wasn't your father at all, was he?"
"Er... Yes and no. My birth father, no. But... He raised me."
"Mm. When I saw it was you who had come, I thought it was about him. Thought you'd want an apology from _me_, not come to give me one. You never seemed like the type who could hide anything. Your feelings always _seemed_ so plain on your face. But you had a lot of practice fooling men like me, didn't you?"
"Yes. But I didn't... They..." As H'yazi deflated, his body pressed in around the pot. "I brought you this. As a show of good faith. I found it, and... You can keep it, sell it... Whatever you think best." He unslung the pot and handed it over.
"Sand?"
"It's a firelizard egg. A golden one."
"Mm. Stole it, did you?"
"No! No, I found it!" Hayarall raised an eyebrow at H'yazi's vehement denial. "It... Its mother had been killed. A feline, we thought. And. I just. You were the first ones I thought of. I wanted you to have it."
"So, I owe _you_ a blood price, and you come bearing such a gift for me?"
"You-- what? You don't owe me anything! You gave me everything I wanted here... I wanted to stay! That was why I warned you, why I couldn't just let them take your livelihood." H'yazi held out the pot more insistently. Still, Hayarall did not take it.
"No one else ever treated you with enough kindness to deserve the same before?"
"We never stayed anywhere else long enough for it to feel like home..."
"And why _did_ you stay so long? Couldn't find the right angle?"
H'yazi closed his eyes for a moment. How could he blame Hayarall for remaining so skeptical?
"I don't know; they never told me everything. For the longest time, I thought they were just as happy as I was here. That maybe we had finally decided to stop running and stop stealing and just... be a family." H'yazi pulled the pot back to his chest, if only to soothe his muscles as they began to burn from holding it out.
"Mm. I didn't see you at Turn's End. Hiding, were you? Does your mother know you went to the Weyr?"
"She... drowned. After... After my father died here, we had to find somewhere else to go. We took shelter with others in a cave, and--"
"I heard about it. Liazi and I worried that you had been there."
"You worried about me?"
"Of course, we did. Why didn't you come back?"
"I..." He could have come back? "Weyrleader N'vanik offered to take in some of the Holdless Dragonsfall rescued from the flood. I thought... I could get away from here and become someone new. Find out who I really am without... without the stealing and the lying and the running."
"And then you found your handsome boy here. What's his name?" asked Hayarall.
"This is Iarlath." H'yazi smiled, and the blue dipped his head to the holdfolk.
"And what about you? Who did you become? Who are you really?"
"W-well. I never knew my real name. If I ever even had one. They called me something new every time we moved, and when we were alone, they only ever called me Boy. So Weyrleader N'vanik told me I could choose my own name." H'yazi's heart raced, and he hugged the jar.
"I decided to be H-h-hayazi. And Iarlath made me H'yazi." He trembled as he gazed, almost terrified of what he would say, into Hayarall's eyes.
"Mm. That's a good name. For a good lad."
The nephews finally fully relaxed, though some of them still did not look fully convinced.
"Let's go inside. We'll get the little egg settled in, tell Liazi all about it, hm? Maybe get you a bowl of stew. Your boy isn't hungry, is he?"
H'yazi laughed with relief.
"He ate before we came."
Last updated on the October 28th 2026