Flight 2
Gold Zaranyth and Silver Besanth

Cyan awoke and felt like smashing some pottery. At the same time she could feel that this was kinda silly. Strange, that was not how she usually woke up. She went to the exit, passing by Zaranyth sleeping peacefully, and looked through the opening in the cliff wall. Lantessama Weyr sure had changed since that first night. At first they had had to sleep on the ground in tents while people were digging the lower caverns and weyrwomen's weyrs. They made sure everything about the Weyr was roomy. All of them had had problems with Syldan Weyr's overpopulation. Besides the Lantessama crew, 2 other queens had left, taking 50 other riders with them. Syldan was now back at it's normal full capacity. And the 2 new weyrs were almost finished.
Suddenly she heard Zaranyth waking up. In stead of her normal sleepy reply, the dragon swooped out to the Feeding grounds. That wasn't normal, she was never that hungry in the morning on a feeding day. She could spot her Zaranyth flying all the way to the feeding grounds were some large males were waiting. How could she spot Zaranyth that far in the weyr? It looked like she was reflecting the sun's rays. No, that couldn't be, the sun wasn't at all near the top of the mountains. Suddenly she put all the pieces together and hurried down, yelling: "Zaranyth! You could have told me!!!! Please don't eat the animals! you'll be too heavy!"
Zaranyth snarled and said: "But I need energy!"
"Drink the blood."
"Oh yeah, that would do."  the dragon said and started to drink.
The males around her waited patiently, every muscle in their bodies tensed. They all wanted to be the first in the air after the queen.
In one big swoop the queen lifted off and flew high in the sky, turning a circle around the weyr to mock her followers. Then she was gone, flying out North-West, to the sea. By that time Cyan had managed to get down to the weyrbowl were the males were standing. She tried to make out who was there, but everything seemed to be blurry, only her queen came through clear. A moment of panic came over her, who would her dragon choose now that she couldn't at least put in some general thoughts about who she liked?
Zaranyth feeling her riders panic slowed down just a bit, enough for Red Sermideth to try and reach her. He was anxious to fly a queen. But Zaranyth saw him coming and slashed his side. "No mere red for me!"
Sermideth was forced back and couldn't fly fast enough to keep up with the others. F'reni called back his dragon and left the weyrbowl. "Some of the greens are nice too." He said to Sermideth.
Next to try was the glowing Aqua Atlayth, sure, he was a special, and a strong young dragon. But Zaranyth wasn't ready to be caught just yet. When Atlayth came closer she swirled down, nearly touching the waves. The males followed, Atlayth, too fast, too eager couldn't stop his downflight when she swooped back up. he dove down in the sea. By the time he emerged, the others were long gone. Cam'stra sighed and left the room. There would be other flights he thought, it wasn't bad for his first.
Zaranyth laughed and started to fly faster. This was critical to brown Wygreth and the red Shiobanth. They fell back and couldn't possibly get back to the leading party. Zaranyth checked back and saw only 4 chasers left. Bronzes Swath and Groneth, good-looking dragons, strong and swift. Silver Besanth and Brown Malideth following shortly after. Zaranyth snarled as she saw the Brown. How dare he! She was a queen, he wouldn't catch her! She hissed and dove through some clouds. She was hidden now. She flew a bit further and emerged below the clouds and turned to the East, back to the Weyr. She flew fast, but noticed the 2 bronzes and the silver were still behind her, they hadn't followed her in the clouds.
With only 3 left Cyan could recognise the dragons. Bronze Groneth was leading, B'ran was a wingleader and would certainly be a good choice for a first mating, but he didn't appeal to her. Bronze Swath's rider M'gengi was a wingsecond and highly appreciated, his dragon was said to be considerate and caring, which would make him a good choice for entertaining a broody Zaranyth. The last was Silver Besanth, who was ridden by Lucas. She didn't quite know Lucas, he was a wingsecond and had insisted he'd come to Lantessama. His silver Besanth was lagging a bit, she wondered why, his silver must be almost as strong as the bronzes.
Zaranyth picking up the thoughts of her rider bugled and made a huge turn in the air, convinced it would throw off the silver. But the exact opposite was true. The 2 bronzes, flying side to side hadn't anticipated her turn and flew straight for another few wingspans, while the silver, laying back had interpreted her movements. He moved closer to her by doing an almost impossible manoeuvre. He seemed to make a 90 degrees angle in one breath, came up below the queen and entangled her.
In the Lower caverns Lucas walked up to Cyan, swept her off the floor into his arms and whispered in her ear: "You know I've had a crush on you since the day I first saw you?" And kissed her. Cyan looked into his eyes, surrendered and let him carry her to her weyr.

Cyan was woken by a soft bugle from Zaranyth. Draki flew in and started to chirp happily. Cyan fought the urge to throw a pillow at the firelizard and got up.
"Zaranyth! What's so important?" she asked the dragon. Despite what she had thought, her dragon had proven not be totally irrational when pregnant. She had been calm and had spent hours with Besanth, while Lucas had kept Cyan company.
"I'm clutching!" Zaranyth said.
Cyan knew a dragon didn't lay all her eggs at once, but she couldn't resist: "How many are there already?"
"4 by now."
The day passed and Zaranyth assured Cyan there wouldn't be any new eggs. Cyan walked around counting.
"8eggs! That's good for a first clutch!"
She turned around and noticed the little golden shimmer caught between Zaranyth's claws.
"Make that 9eggs and a queen!"
Cyan almost danced out of the hatching grounds and flew up the stairs to Trix's weyr.
"10eggs! and one of them is a queen!" She shouted when she entered. But Trix wasn't there. Now where was she on this very important day? Cyan went back to the Hatching Sands and stayed with her queen.

It was night when Trix finally got back. She had been on a picnic with Donriven to celebrate the success of Lantessama Weyr. Frynoth and Ensith dropped them of in the weyrbowl and flew to the hights. They twined necks and looked out over the sea. Trix and Donriven smiled at the sight of the two dragons and turned around to go to their weyrs. That's when Trix noticed it.
"Donriven, what's that light in the Hatching Sands?"
"Don't know, let's find out." he said with an adventurous spark in his eyes, "But we'll need to be quiet, it could just be a romantic evening for Zaranyth and Besanth"
They entered and saw that both the dragons and the humans were sleeping. But still they could see the light. White on one side, Green on the other.
"Donriven! It's coming from the eggs!" Trix shouted. A bit too loud, because it woke up everyone in the cave.
"You're right!" Donriven said. "How odd! You're sure Atlayth didn't have something to do with it?"