The Front Left Quadrant

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 21st August 2009

Characters: Zharesti
Description: Zharesti notices the changes in Veyeth that indicate she will soon rise.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 4, day 12 of Turn 5

Today was front left quadrant day in Zharesti and Veyeth's lives. The
day the front left hand side of Veyeth was up for special attention.
Extra scrubbing, extra close inspection by the goldrider's hands and
eyes, and then a thorough oiling.

It was a pattern they'd developed early in their life together when it
had seemed that the gold would never stop growing. She had, of course,
and had even reduced in bulk during her long illness. She was now a
tall, noticeably lean gold, but healthy.

And fairly gleaming if one stood in exactly the right place to
appreciate the front left quadrant.

Zharesti was standing in that spot, enjoying the overcast conditions
that kept the heat down a little in this first sevenday of autumn, as
she surveyed Veyeth.

"You're gleaming," she informed the dragon aloud. Her eyes drifted down
the lean body, beyond the newly oiled front left quadrant. "All over."

Veyeth agreed it was so and both dragon and rider considered what that
meant to them. Most importantly it meant Veyeth was healthy, because
sick dragons did not rise.

For most of their life together Zharesti had taken Veyeth's rising for
granted. In their youngest Turns together it had been rare and much
welcomed since it was proof that dragonkind wasn't going to die out,
despite their diminished numbers.

And then, quite unexpectedly, the golds had all started rising more
often, and having larger and larger clutches. It had been an odd time;
uncertain and puzzling, as much for Veyeth as Zharesti and the other
goldriders. Veyeth was insistent that there needed to be more dragons,
but had no idea why. And more dragons there were.

Until there were so many that the long-abandoned Southern and then
Northern Continent Weyrs had been opened again. The more experienced
golds were sent to establish themselves in those new-old Weyrs, and as
the golds settled into a regular cycle of rising every six months the
once empty weyrs and caverns had started to fill.

Zharesti had been one of those goldriders - becoming a Weyrwoman then
needing to add 'Senior' to her title when another gold had graced the
Weyr. She had been in her early forties, then, and excited by the
challenges she - and dragonriders everywhere - were facing. And when
they became more certain about Thread ...

In retrospect they had been wonderful times, those preparatory Turns.
All the excitement of a purpose that had long been missing from
dragonriders lives. There had been crafting and courier work, games and
a nominal Wing structure, but it had all been unfocused left-over
traditions from things that had been long gone. Suddenly the very
_reason_ dragons were hatched and Candidates were Impressed was real again.

Of course, the excitement of preparation gave way to the reality of
Thread. The awful casualties, the deaths. The emotional kaleidoscope as
dragonriders moved from anticipation through horror and grief to the
more almost unemotional determination to fulfil their role. They learned
how to pace themselves, because they couldn't help but see decades ahead
of fighting Thread.

And for the goldriders, decades of their dragons rising every six months
to produce the clutches that were needed to keep enough wings in the air
to protect Pern. As much as anybody, Zharesti had settled in for the
duration when suddenly everything had changed again, this time on a far
more personal level.

Dragons seldom fell ill - but Veyeth had. For the whole of the second
Turn for the Pass she had battled with some sort of stomach trouble that
had weakened her, destroyed her appetite, and given her pain when
Zharesti had insisted that her dragon eat _something_. Nobody could
confirm a cause; nobody ever came up with a successful treatment. But
sometime, over a Turn after it began, the illness passed. The pain eased
and finally disappeared. Veyeth started to put back on some of the bulk
she had lost.

And then she rose again, in the third Turn of the Pass, having missed
three cycles. To Zharesti it had been much more than just a mating
flight or the conception of another generation of dragons; to her it had
been proof that _finally_ Veyeth was well again.

It hadn't mattered then, in that wonderful moment, that while Veyeth and
Zharesti had been so focused on surviving, that they had lost their
place as the senior queen and Weyrwoman. But later it had been
difficult. After the second time Veyeth had risen, right on schedule.
And the third and forth. Zharesti had had time to contemplate her
position in the Weyr she had led through its reopening and meeting those
first Threadfalls.

She had tried, but in the end with Veyeth's health seemingly as good as
ever, Zharesti had asked to be a junior weyrwoman somewhere else, and
landed in River Bluff's Weyrbowl.

It hadn't been deliberate on her part, to choose a Weyr with an older
Weyrwoman. In reality there hadn't been that many choices. But when the
news had come that Tsaera's Tabanirth would not rise again Zharesti
wouldn't have been the only one counting off the months in her head. She
hadn't been excited - that sort of emotion had worn itself out while
they waited for Thread - but she had been pleased. It was unexpected,
but it was good. She had the skills and the confidence to do the job ...
and she would.

Veyeth would rise in the next couple of days. Some bronze would make his
rider Weyrleader and this, this gold with a gleaming hide that went well
beyond the newly oiled front left quadrant, she would make her rider
Senior Weyrwoman at River Bluff Weyr.

Last updated on the August 29th 2009

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The Front Left Quadrant