Falling Star, Rising Moon [Cat]

Between all that she had to do as a wherling goldhandler, and her opposing schedule to that of the new weyrlings, Kalenna had not yet gone to personally congratulate any of them. She personally knew only Q'sis, the first male tanrider on Pern, but it was polite to introduce herself to the rest, she thought, from the ironriders to the large number who had Impressed fighters. She and Kalesk would be an integral part of the Weyr's nightly protection, after all, and despite Kalesk's loathing of crowds, Kalenna did not want to be the sort of leader who disdained anyone.

Naturally, she would not disdain the male tanrider, either. Her initial mirth - and there had definitely been mirth - had not faded, but the information was no longer new, and she fancied she could hide it. Tall, masculine, arrogant Q'sis...riding a tan. And in several turns, with a very good chance of falling into bed in Flightlust with a man. Although she knew well that some men of his sort fancied other men and simply tried to hide it, so hey, maybe he would enjoy that. Maybe that was why Unath had chosen him.

They had passed the little tan on the way to the feeding pens, Kalenna and Kalesk; she knew which tan was Q'sis's, as that was exactly the kind of knowledge she made a point of finding. Kalesk, truly, could not care less. He was only a man, a dragonrider. Subqueen or not, she was only a baby. So long as they did not threaten Hers or the safety of the Weyr she called home, they did not exist in Kalesk's personal sphere. Yet she sensed Her handler's longing to follow, and so she made quick work of her evening meal.

They paused only for a brief dip in the river so Kalesk could wash off the worst of the blood, and then set off. Kalesk's sharp eyes quickly found the tan and her weyrling, and she loped on ahead of Kalenna, circling them at some distance. The starlight glinted on her sandy hide, the metallic gold clearly showing through, and at last she paused directly in front of them. Sleeping tan: likely not a threat. Weyrling occupied with holding her: same. Therefore, when Kalenna at last strode up to them, Kalesk gave the okay, and Kalenna bowed to Q'sis.

"Well met, tanrider," she said, not a hint of laughter or cruelty or anything but sincerity in her tone. It actually was somewhat adorable, the way he held his beauty. "It has been some time. This is Kalesk." She gestured to the wher, who stared intently at Q'sis.

Kalesk watched the tan with mild curiosity, mild wariness, and mostly the simple air of taking-it-in she typically projected. Baby dragons were new to her - dragons of any kind did not often cross her path, save the large copper who had presided over her hatching.

Disrespect? No. He rode a subqueen, and he had done what Kalenna could not and Impressed a dragonet at all; there was no disrespect there. It was hilarious but she would not point and laugh, nor allow her private enjoyment of the irony of the situation to change the facts of it. A tan was not the sort of dragon, in personality or in color, that one would expect Q'sis to ride - yet she was still a tan and a dragon, and she and her rider did not deserve mockery for her choice. It was a good choice...in part because it was funny.

The mechanics of respect and amusement were a bit tangled, admittedly, but Kalenna remained stoic, as if it were perfectly normal for a man to Impress a tan. "Unath," she repeated, though she had known before. "Kalesk does not like people to encroach on her space..."

Hearing the man's words, however, Kalesk decided that she could allow the tan to look her fill. The dragonet was larger, of course; Kalesk was only a few sevendays older. The gold stood stock-still, her eyes following the tan, only a nigh-imperceptible shift in her muscles indicating that now the tan could approach. "It's all right," Kalenna murmured to the tan, knowing subtlety was not the strong suit of that particular color.

Ah, he remembered, and Kalenna smiled at that. "I did, in the end," she agreed. It was easier to speak to him now - gold wherling to tan weyrling - than it had been as Candidate to Candidate, somehow. She had never truly been threatened by him, but admittedly, the fact that she was bonded to a strong, smart wher and he had a tan left them on more even footing than when neither had known if they would Impress at all. "It is breakfast for me, yes." She sipped at the fruit juice; the flavor was slightly familiar, she'd likely tried it here before, but normally she'd go for klah to wake up in the evening.

Ah, he remembered that. "She did," Kalenna agreed, choosing to believe this was not a game of teasing. Even if it was, it wouldn't be much fun for him if she did not rise to the bait. "No one will ever mistake her for Risk, from what I understand." Nor had Kalenna ever seen a gold, wher or dragon, quite this shade. Kalesk was special. She blended, despite her shine. "Unath is a beauty. Is it true her sister is her mirror?"

Any praise of Kalesk pleased Kalenna, and she nodded, sipping again at her mug. "She has power," she said. Not merely because of the rank her color granted her, but because of who she was. Her power did not come from a natural leadership, from a desire to lord over others, but from the simple understanding that she was strong and would protect. "It would have been new blood no matter who Impressed...I believe we were all new-volunteered. She will make an excellent dam in time." It would be a few turns before Kalenna had to think seriously about that, however.

Kalesk stood stock-still, the only movement a slight spreading of her wings, instinctively making herself larger and more menacing. The tan clearly had no care for space, for freedom, and Kalesk fought the urge to bare her teeth at the stench of her. The bitter scent of dullness was palpable to the wher, and the only thing that kept her solid, kept her from fleeing - for she would not attack a dragon - was the knowledge that Unath was but an infant. She did not know better. She had not hatched as wise as Kalesk was.

The actual nose-bump got a snort out of Kalesk, and a tiny shake of her head - it might be taken as greeting, but it was more irritation, her usual patience wearing quite thin. Why would anyone want to be this close? Unath filled her vision, kept her from seeing all the other things that must be seen; the heat of the dragonet's lither body was unpleasant, not like that which she remembered from the sands on which she had been birthed, not like the warmth of Kalenna.

Kalenna's body tensed, at the feel of Kalesk's rising annoyance, but the gold held it in check with little calming assistance from her handler - this time. And only because the irritant was a dragon. If a firelizard had dared get that close, it would have been batted from the sky by now. Kalesk was no red, to strike often or hard, but her instincts were to protect. "Fascinating," she murmured. She knew little of twins - most of her life being spent around dragons and whers, which hitherto did not produce any - but were they not meant to be identical? That they had come out opposite, not merely in their hides but in their personality and other tiny ways, surely said something. What it said, however, she had no way of knowing. "You are a capable guard for said impulses, I am sure. She could not have chosen better." And Kalenna meant that absolutely; the amusement wasn't even in her mind now, much less her tone. Q'sis was an excellent companion for a dragon like Unath. The question was whether or not he was truly happy with the Impression, save in the way all riders were.

Once the dragonet retreated and took an interest in their paws, Kalesk stretched herself, her eyes never leaving the tan. Her feet were fine, suited to that which she used them for - running, leaping, the chase, the kill. Whether Unath's were more helpful to her than otherwise, Kalesk could not say, nor did she care. The flying beasts, her relatives, mattered only in the sense that she knew from Kalenna they were vital to the Weyr, and knew by instinct they were not to be touched unless the threat was direct and the danger otherwise unavoidable. They were not personal. They were not hers to rule. The rattling of the wings was the final straw, and Kalesk stalked away from the dragonet, tired of her, returning to her handler and twining around her legs. What was the word she wanted, for something she could not convey strongly enough without the words she guarded so closely? Ah. Bright,[/i] she said, her tone utterly contemptuous.

The meaning, the meaning Kalesk had in her mind, was so clearly written in the syllable that Kalenna had no trouble following. To a wher, it was the same as "dimglow," she supposed; brightness was a bad thing. Yet it meant to a human the opposite of how Kalesk used it, and Kalenna couldn't help the laugh that escaped her. "Sorry, that was Kalesk," she told Q'sis hastily. Ah, yes. She was now one of the Impressees herself, after being on the wrong end so many times of conversations she couldn't hear.

To that, Kalenna could only offer a shrug. She respected Audren completely; the woman was a wonderful alphahandler, and Kalenna was not out to take her position as soon as she could. Nor was she here to keep Ridan down, though she had not met him and could not truly judge him until she did. If she earned that position, or betahandler, so be it. A red in charge of whers was not so unthinkable as it would be with dragons, but no doubt his opinion was one that many shared. "In time," she said simply. In time all things would shake out as they would.

Shaking her head, she said, "No, I won't, and I wished to congratulate you," she said. "We saw Unath and chose to follow when we could for that purpose, since there was unlikely to be another chance. You are the only weyrling I met prior to Impression, and a subqueen deserves this. Any would, of course, but she is special."

Ambition was something Kalenna had to spare, but likely not the kind he wished her to have. It was not ultimate leadership she craved; she was glad to serve under those she respected, Audren and perhaps Ridan, if he proved himself to her. Fajra also, certainly. Kalenna wished instead to do her part, to assist the Weyr with whatever power was granted to her. Issuing a challenge to someone who was doing a fine job? That helped no one. It only caused chaos and confusion. And as for Kalesk - she knew her status but did not revel in it, and while she was aware of the ranks humans gave to Ausk and Risk, she did not see them as her superiors. She was free, and she would do the job that was in front of her, whatever that may be. That was for Kalenna to decide, because Kalesk didn't care until the duty was presented to her, and sometimes not even then.

Kalenna cocked her head at that; it was not something she'd much considered, the name of the new ranks, but she could see what he meant easily enough. "There is a notable difference between tans, reds, and oranges, and then golds and coppers," she said. "To use the accepted terms simply for ease - subqueens mature at a different rate, and they produce smaller clutches. It is a physical difference, not one forced upon them by humans. They could do better than 'sub' for them, however. Kings and subkings, that is a different matter...more a size difference than anything else, which is not something to base a rank on, I suppose. Fighter is the most accurate, I will agree with you on that."

Ah, here was something she could tell him. "I have," she said. "The first new color was a white, in the ninth pass." Kalenna assumed he was not stupid, and did not need her to tell him how many hundreds of turns ago that was, with the eleventh pass now approaching. "But she was the only one until this interval. The second white was hatched, I believe, in 128, and the colors expanded from there. Three of them - cyans, tans, and viridians - began at Dalibor." Very recently, in other words - in fact, she recalled, tans and viridians had come about at Callistath's first hatching. "It is rather interesting to have gone so many hundreds of turns with only five colors, that they should do this now. Do you think it means that somehow they know this pass will be different, and the new colors will serve some need?"

It was a genuine question; Kalenna herself had given some thought to the matter, though it did not upset her as it did Q'sis. She had every faith in the dragons. Whatever caused the mutations, it must be a necessity. The only question was, why now? Why a single white hundreds of turns ago, then one more - and then twelve new colors in seventy turns, four of them clutching dragons, three of the calibre to fly them? Why so suddenly the ability for certain fighters to come in either sex? It was a puzzle that the dragons themselves could not answer, but what it boded for the future, no one could tell.

"Ah, but more little queens would also mean more large clutches," Kalenna reminded him. "Their numbers would multiply, perhaps until the tithes could not sustain them, even allowing for losses to Threadfall in the coming turns. Smaller and more infrequent clutches could fill a need without leading to overpopulation, though how their bodies would know this well enough to create an entire rank, I have no idea." He was quite correct, about tans, however, and she gave him a real smile for it. "We assume with tans, because they are roughly the correct size," she allowed. "If it proves in time that tans do not clutch, I will happily have that drink with you. A proper one." Since it would take a few Flights to prove it to her satisfaction, they would each be well past graduation by then, and it would no longer be against the rules.

The more she watched him with Unath, and she with him, the more Kalenna's amusement at the match faded into acceptance. Yes, he was the right rider for her, odd as it may seem from the outside. He clearly adored her, and she him. She could, indeed, grow to respect him as a dragonman, she thought...though perhaps not as a person. Time would tell. Underneath the controlling, opinionated exterior, perhaps there lurked a big old softie, which Unath had fallen in love with. More likely he was ego through and through, though, and Kalenna could not truly appreciate such in anyone.

"Might as well say that a woman should bear more sons, when she only gives daughters," she remarked mildly to his words about subkings. "It is not as though it were their choice. Whatever drives the new colors to appear, and browns, and whatever makes bronzes and irons so rare...it is nothing we can control." Should they find a way, she doubted they ought to meddle. Unless the Pass proved disastrous thanks to the new colors, she would trust the instincts of the dragons as he apparently would not.

With a nod, she said, "Thread is what it is, but things don't change for no reason. There must be one, but we may never know." The dragons themselves did not know; the new colors merely seemed certain of what they were, yet if they had some special purpose, so far as she knew, none had imparted it to the Weyr.

Kalenna's eyebrows rose at that. "Firelizards certainly can produce flame; I've seen it done," she said. "It is small though, as they are. And they are not so easily trained to protect Pern as dragons or whers."

Kalesk, for her part, watched the man and his dragonet. She always watched; Kalenna had come to accept this astuteness of her gold. Her opinion of the tan was settled at "not worth much," but the man just seemed to unsettle her. Not in a way that made her cower; she would never cower. No, her fixed gaze almost begged him to make one wrong move toward her handler. She wasn't angry with him, though, patient and calm at the moment; she merely distrusted him, more extremely than most. However, as Kalenna had also seen Kalesk sour toward one she considered her best friend at Dalibor...

A white surviving in the wild? That was odd; too small for its mere strength to protect it, when it was so obvious. She could not bristle at his estimation of whers; by and large it was correct, though she had far more love for the species now. Once she'd shared that opinion, when she still had lofty dreams of flight. "Tans and oranges; they have only come up with reds so far," she said with a nod. "Nor do they have non-traditional fighter females, merely greens - and only golds for queens." Whers were not bolstering their numbers with new female colors as dragons were, in other words. Odd, that.

"And their response to the world's needs...has been to produce new colors," Kalenna said. There was no hint of triumph in her tone, for her estimation of the man had been completed long ago. No woman, even a goldhandler, would alter his opinions. No logic she could give - especially when, she was aware, her idea was largely "just trust the dragons" - would sway him. Still, she spoke. He seemed to wish to discuss it, and she fancied she knew a bit more than many others he could converse with. "I have seen many dragon hatchings in my time." Stood for many, too. "Queens do not scruple to nip their children into line, when they feel they must. If these new colors were abominations, if they were unnecessary or someone made wrong, I daresay their dams would force them between - or if they could not find it in their hearts to murder their children, as most, I think, could not, they would at least share with their riders and keep the new colors out of the wings."

The acknowledgment was nice, and she smiled at his bartering. "Ah, but if your lady does not clutch, that is when you will want a drink," she countered. "I would not tease or rub it in; do you think so poorly of me?" Kalesk gave her confidence, however, and the original offer of a drink had not rankled, it had merely come at a bad time; therefore, she nodded. "Whichever graduation comes second, we shall find each other. Likely we wherlings will be sent off first." She could imagine no situation in which she and Kalesk would be held back, after all.

At least he respected Kalesk; that was something, to both wher and handler. Kalenna smirked at that. "You do not consider yourself a man already? How many turns have you, nineteen, twenty? Or are you young and merely do not look your age?" She was older than most here, she thought ruefully. Older than all who had Impressed at Dalibor, older than her alphahandler. Not old for a person, but old for the Weyr. "Differences are safety. If all we had were dragons, we would need far more flamethrowers."

That comment was met with a snort. "I'm afraid I have never had much time for the little ones. They are more pest than anything else to those they have not bonded with. What do you think of these pillies? Have you seen one? I have only heard, and read, of course."

No doubt his utter loathing for reds colored his thinking, however; Kalenna was well aware that young Herath had murdered her queenly sister. Yet that was not the first time in history that dragonets or wherets had brawled or accidentally injured each other, sending one another between; her understanding from Audren was that even reds, the most typically violent of the lot, had their place. Their ferocious protection of what they held dear (and their handlers would most certainly extend that to the Weyr itself) could prove vital. They were untested in Threadfall, and therefore, who could truly judge? For that was the measure of a dragon, and the Pass would show clear if the lot of the new colors should have been slaughtered, or if they would rise to the occasion. She knew which side of the mark she fell on, and it was obvious that she and Q'sis were separated there. But she was also very much aware, for all that he saw it as idealism, that he must not have the experience of a Weyr - or of life - as she did, or he would have known more without needing to see the records.

A real one. Of course he had to ruin even a joke with his misogyny. Kalenna's own grin did not falter, though it briefly turned venomous. On a tan, he would never rule the Weyr, and she doubted his personality would place him in charge of Candidates or Weyrlings or what have you - yet if she clutched, as she surely would, it would afford him some status. Status he did not deserve. Men like Q'sis did not belong in a Weyr, with his outdated, poisonous beliefs - but here he was, and not only that, he'd been chosen. Chosen by a dragon, as she never had been.

It was rare now, having bonded to her beauty, that she thought about the failed Impression long ago, and usually she viewed it in terms of a blessing - no dragon would have been Kalesk, nor would she have been as ready for this responsibility at the age of twenty as she was now. But Q'sis had something she would never have, and as irritating as he was, as much as her mind told her he did not belong, her heart knew that he'd been chosen, so he did. Why? Why had she been unworthy, and a man like him Impressed a subqueen?

A snarl escaped Kalesk, who did not like this line of reasoning in the least. Strong. She need. Unpleasant? All unpleasant. Kalenna mine.[/i] No dragon would have had Kalenna because, to Kalesk, they had known, obviously. Known who she was meant for.

The wher's words, unexpected and rare, made Kalenna's smile settle back into something approaching sincere, and she responded readily to his words. "I know you are man enough to meet Thread," she said. "And in a turn, no master will call you boy." With a shake of her head, she explained, "I have not had the...privilege...of meeting a Lord Holder, but animals are meant to work, as are we all. The pillies, at least, keep the lake clear of murderous fish; that does not mean people need carry them around as pets." Just like firelizards might help in Threadfall, yet at other times only seemed to make people's lives harder. She could understand the comfort that a pet might bring, but when it came to the point of irritating others...