Flayla and Ystwyth

This is the story of how Flayla and Ystwyth met. (©SunBlind)
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Flayla ran as fast as she could. She had always wanted to watch Threadfall but not like this. At least she had never imagined that she could be so afraid. As she looked back, she mused that it was odd that something so beautiful could be so deadly. The silvery strands trailed through the air as it fell towards land. It was still over the water, perhaps she still had time to make it back to her hold.

The ocean wind swept her dark hair into her face making it difficult for her to see anything. Quickly she grabbed hold of it and shoved it down the back of her shirt, not slowing her pace. She could see the Seahold now, but it still seemed so very far away. She looked back and saw that the Thread was gaining on her and that the dragons were in the sky as well. Flayla wondered if this is what Menolly had felt when she had run from Thread, only Menolly was known to be a fast runner, unlike herself. She could feel her legs getting tired and it was taking more and more of an effort to keep them moving. Flayla gasped for breath but she never seemed to be able to get enough. If she made it through this she would punish herself for losing track time on a day that Thread was due to fall. Then again, getting caught out there was bad enough.

She slipped on a rock and fell hard on one knee. She almost didn't want to get up again, her muscles complained so, but she started running again. The hold was not that far now, and she trusted the dragons to let no Threads escape.

At last Flayla stopped by the large, heavy doors of the Seahold. They were locked as expected but she knew of a large rock outcropping where she could be protected and still be able to see the dragons high overhead. She ducked underneath the stone and paused to catch her breath. She had skinned her knee but she was none the worse for the experience. She settled back to watch.

From where she was Flayla could see little but a few coloured specs in the sky and an occasional burst of flame as another clump of Thread was destroyed. It wasn't long before they were directly overhead. She watched as the now much larger dragons dove and banked in the air to flame or avoid the deadly Thread. Flayla thought she could even smell the firestone from the dragons' breath, but then again maybe it was just her imagination. At one point some ash was blown towards her and got caught in her hair. She wondered at how something so easily reduced to such nothingness could have caused so much terror in the hearts of the men and women of Pern. And yet she had been afraid of it too.

All too soon the dragons and the Thread had passed out of view. Flayla knew that the doors to the hold would not be opened for a while yet. She took this time to return to the beach before she had to help the ships set out to catch the fish which came to the surface to feed on the drowned Thread. She had a strange sensation of being followed the whole way there but every time she looked back she saw nothing at all.

She gathered up the pipes she had been using earlier and thought once again of how she was like the Menolly of so long ago. Only Flayla's family enjoyed listening to her music, so much so that she had to come here to have some peace. Sometimes it bothered her how people would stand outside her door to listen to her play, only to start humming along out of tune believing that she could not hear them. And sometimes she just wanted to play for herself.

The feeling of being watched returned, followed by a great gust of wind. The sand blew in all directions, temporarily blinding her so she could not see the cause of it. As soon as it all settled she looked into the eyes of a young man beside a handsome blue dragon. The dragon's eyes whirled gently as he first sniffed at her hair then attempted to lick some of the sea spray off of her face. Flayla couldn't help by jump back as she saw the large teeth, no matter how many times she had heard that dragons would never hurt a person.

"He wouldn't hurt a fly," the rider said as he smacked the dragon on the shoulder for frightening the girl, "I was flying in one of the wings today when I saw you running for your hold. I would have helped only you were almost there by the time I noticed you. But the reason why I followed you here is not so simple. You must have heard that there are eggs hardening on the sands of Talis Weyr. Well, my blue here has yet to be wrong in finding candidates that will Impress, and he wasn't going to let you slip through his claws, so to speak. Come," and with that the rider offered his hand to her.

A silly thought of being able to have all the peace she could ever desire on a dragon's back slipped into her mind. She could play all the music she wanted and no one would be able to request that she play something else or have her teach it to them right that moment. Flayla wondered what her pipes would sound like sitting on the back of a quick and agile Green, or maybe even a Gold! Hoping that the blue who was never wrong hadn't made his first mistake, she gave her hand to the rider and allowed herself to be pulled up the dragon's shoulder. "At least when Menolly had been rescued by a dragon, she wasn't being brought to be a candidate at a Hatching," Flayla thought. Maybe her story still has a chance of being different.

Stats:
Name: Ystwyth
Rider: Flayla
Color: Green (female)
Parents: Gold Lionath x Bronze Intefeth
Weyr: Talis Weyr (Agency closed)