A Mother of Dragons

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Kailen awoke with a splitting headache. Awareness was slow in coming to her and she wasn't sure just where she was or how she had come to be there. She sensed her nakedness and the crusty coating of dried sweat that covered her skin. She felt a chill and when she shivered two strong arms pulled her closer to a warm wall of flesh that she curled up against. She breathed in the heady aromas of male sweat and leather as warmth slowly returned to her body. Somewhere in the back of her mind questions arose about this mysterious wall of warm flesh, but for the time being she was content to ignore them and collect her thoughts.

She vaguely remembered being trapped in a ring of faces, all alike, except for one face that stood out clearly from the rest. As one by one she eliminated the others, this special face had remained as the only one she truly felt safe with. In the end she simply turned away from the others and claimed that one for herself.

She kissed the face, at least it started out to be a kiss, but it had become like an impression as she attempted to forge a bond with the face as strong as the one she had with her dragon. Arms appeared to peal her away and they wrapped themselves around her so tightly that she could no longer move. Then the arms took her out of the bright sunlight and into darkness... a darkness filled with stars above and blue sky below, but that didn't make any sense... did it?

The dream faded as she awakened a second time. She opened her eyes experimentally and gazed out over a landscape of coarse hair and rippling muscles. She tried to uncurl herself from the tight little ball she was in, but found resistance from the strong arms enveloping her. The motion awakened F'tan and he pulled a bed fur up and over her shivering body.

"Good afternoon," he said matter-of-factly, "did you sleep well?"

"Mmmm," was all she managed to say at first, "Okay I guess," she finally croaked. Her throat was dry and horse from all the screaming, growling and hissing she had done.

"Are you hungry?" he asked, "I'm famished myself."

There it was again, from the back of her mind surfaced the questions she had not wanted to ask. Now that she had given herself to him, could he even wait to get away? When all was said and done, would the mating flight be a short-lived experience after all? Who could ever love somebody like her anyway unless they were being driven by the passions of a mating dragon? Was this all she had to look forward to, a life where her own happiness was forever subject to her dragon's reproductive system?

She sat up, hugging the bed fur to her chest and sighed meekly, "I suppose..." She looked around the small sleeping chamber, but nothing looked familiar. Just where was she? "Where... where are my clothes?"

F'tan shifted in the bed behind her, stretching his arms up and placing his hands behind his head, "Um... right over there in that little pile next to the bed," he said with obvious amusement in his voice.

"Now he's going to laugh at me," thought Kailen sullenly. She looked at the small pile on the floor, they looked familiar, but they weren't her clothes. Beside them lay a much larger pile of flight leathers that didn't look to be hers either. Why was this so difficult? Bronze riders were supposed to be a noble breed, "Why doesn't he offer to leave first?"

Her shoulders trembled as she let a small sob escape and F'tan immediately sat up. He noticed now that tears were beginning to trace their way down her cheeks. "Is something wrong?" With a gentleness that Kailen had never heard from him before he asked, "Didn't you enjoy it?"

She sniffled back a sob and said, "I... I don't really remember..."

F'tan reached over and touched her lightly on the shoulder, "We could do it again if you like?"

Her whole body went rigid as fear crawled up her spine like a tunnel snake. Slowly she turned her head and looked into his eyes. They were beautiful eyes, golden brown with flecks that twinkled even in the steady light of the glow baskets. His usual smirk was gone, replaced by a look of genuine concern. She knew this face well - it was the face from her dream, "Right n-now?"

His smile returned as he said, "Well, our dragons are asleep and I doubt if we could wake them even if we wanted to. H'mon has a meeting scheduled for this afternoon, but I guess he can manage to hold one meeting without me. Besides, you and Leanoth aren't going between for quite a while, so... why not?"

"Why not, he asks!" A thousand reasons why not flooded into her mind, chief among them was why a man like him would even want to? What could she possibly do to make this man happy? What had she already done that made him think she ever could? She lowered her eyes and whispered, "I... I don't know... what to do."

F'tan touched her chin tenderly with his fingers and raised her head to face him again, his smile was sincere, "I'm not so sure about that myself." When Kailen frowned he looked up at the ceiling as if searching for an answer that could make her happy. Finally he looked at her again and said, "When Leanoth was ready to fly you helped her learn how even though you didn't know how to fly yourself, right?" Kailen wrinkled her brow then nodded hesitantly, so he continued, "You are ready to fly Kailen, let me help you learn how... please?"

Kailen stared at him in disbelief. Just what was he offering her? It sounded like more than an afternoon tryst, but what if she was reading too much into it? She looked deeply into his extraordinary eyes and saw something there beyond the simple kindness he had shown her over the last few days, but did she dare hope it might be... love? She would never know for sure if she never took the chance, so in a voice soft enough it would have been drowned out by a whisper she said, "All right."

"Good..." F'tan smiled broadly again, "The key to a successful flight is always a properly executed series of preliminaries..." He caressed her cheeks, tenderly wiping away her tears with his fingers, "Always insure that your dragon's eyes and ears are clear of obstructions..." he lectured as his thumbs lightly brushed her eyelashes and his fingers traced the delicate curve of her ears. "It helps to reassure your dragon at this point by softly rubbing behind her ears..." His fingers wove their way into the soft hair at the base of her neck as he drew her lips towards his, "And it is absolutely vital to insure that your dragon has been properly fed..."

They kissed deeply and Kailen melted into his arms.

o o o

Kailen held on for dear life as her feet dangled more than a man's height above the hot sands of the hatching chamber. Her arms had been locked around her dragon's neck when another contraction wracked Leanoth's body and the struggling dragon arched her back. Kailen was tired, hungry and drenched in sweat, but this was the last egg and she was determined to see this through to the end. She had promised Leanoth and she had also promised herself.

"Push... Push... That's it, one more time... PUSH!"

Leanoth was not yet fully grown and her first clutch of eggs was exceptionally large, as were the eggs themselves, so the normally uncomplicated process of laying the eggs had become something more akin to the human birth experience... in other words painful. Kailen once more opened herself to the mental link with her dragon and gritted her teeth as she channeled the pain away from Leanoth and into herself.

A shudder ran down Leanoth's spine as the egg broke loose and dropped lightly onto the warm sand. Kailen sighed in relief; it was finally over. Leanoth swung her head around to nuzzle the egg and Kailen's feet at last touched the sand again. She let go and dropped down beside the egg.

"It's another big one, my love!"

Like I didn't already know that?

Kailen chuckled softly and rubbed her brave girl's eye ridges. Noting the slow swirling of her dragon's eyes, she said, "Why don't you just curl up right here and get some sleep? Anyone who wants to see your little ones will just have to wait until tomorrow."

If you insist, but I'm sure I could keep laying eggs all night if you want me to.

"Some other time you silly dragon." She hugged the immense golden head then turned to admire the clutch arrayed before her. Twenty-six! More than Trinith had clutched when Kailen had impressed Leanoth and she couldn't be more proud if she had done it all herself.

You did plenty, the sleepy dragon added, trust me.

A sad smile crossed Kailen's face for a moment, but then she brightened as she gazed at all those eggs.

"Get to sleep! I'm going to go find some food and a hot bath."

Save some for me.

"Tomorrow, my love, all the wherry you can eat and a scrubbing you'll never forget. I promise."

Kailen turned towards the passageway that led out to the bowl of the crater and noticed a familiar figure leaning against the wall. She walked up to the tall bronze rider and saw the smirk on F'tan's face. She put her hands on her hips and glared at him.

"What's wrong, haven't you ever seen women working before?"

F'tan pushed himself off the wall and closed the distance between them as he said, "Ah, but you're not a woman..." Kailen frowned as F'tan wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her up to his eye level, "you're a goddess in disguise." They kissed one another deeply and for a very long time. "Did I hear you say you were hungry?" he asked. She arched her eyebrows and leered at him. "I-I mean food, you evil girl." he stuttered, "I'll deal with that later."

"In that case yes," she said, "I could eat a runner beast!" F'tan turned from the chamber and walked out the passageway with Kailen still in his arms. "Hey, put me down! I can walk you know." He set her down with a grin and she wrapped an arm around his waist, leaning all her weight on him.

"Oh sure, you can walk all right." As he dragged her down the passageway the big bronze head of Jarlath bobbed into view. "It's all over, you missed it," called out F'tan.

Over? Is Leanoth coming out now?

"Leanoth is fine Jarlath," Kailen mentally told the worried papa dragon, "but she's asleep inside the chamber right now."

Thank you Kailen. I won't disturb her.

"I still can't get over how you do that," said F'tan. "I wish I could hear what you said to him though."

"I told him Leanoth was sleeping and if you could hear everything I said to Jarlath, how could I talk about you behind your back?" She poked F'tan in the ribs with her free hand, but doing so caused a shooting pain in her neck. She massaged the spasm as they walked on past the bronze dragon. Craning her neck upward she noticed the sky above the Weyr with surprise, it was all tinged with pink and purple, "How long have I been in there, anyway?"

"Well, let's see..." mused F'tan, "You were up before dawn and it's now just past sunset. That would make it all day long."

"No wonder I'm tired and hungry." Her neck was now limber enough to comfortably rest her head on F'tan's arm, but an intuition made her turn and look back at Jarlath instead. The big bronze dragon was gazing down the passageway trying to catch a glimpse of Leanoth.

"Well, go on in silly. She won't bite your head off... unless you wake her up of course."

The big dragon looked at Kailen and then ambled happily into the passageway and disappeared.

"Your dragon is paying an uncommon amount of attention to my dragon F'tan. People are going to start talking."

"He takes after his rider and let people talk if they have nothing better to do. We don't need anyone's approval to spoil our women."

Kailen frowned, "People are talking, aren't they?" she leaned a little less on him as they walked on. "You know, there's no reason you have to stay with me after the hatching if you'd rather be..."

F'tan stopped walking and gazed skyward, "Shards woman, are we going to go through all this again?" He turned and looked down at his weyrmate, her head was already bowed dejectedly. He lifted her chin so he could look into her eyes. "Listen to me and really listen this time. It's true that there wasn't a bronze rider in this Weyr who would have blamed me if I had walked away from you after the mating flight. Heck, after you tried to molest me right out here in the open..." Kailen blushed, "...there were some that thought I should never have taken you at all, but I did take you and I'm not giving you back without a fight. Do you hear me? I want to be with you, it's just that simple."

There were tears in Kailen's eyes now. She knew he meant this and she loved him for it, but she was still plagued by doubts. People looked up to F'tan, he was a role model for riders young and old alike. If being with her were to undermine his position in any way she could never forgive herself. And then there were all the things a woman like her could never give him...

"But F'tan, you're the Wingsecond, you deserve better than me. You deserve a... a real woman."

"A real woman?" F'tan rolled his eyes, "Is that what you think I want? Well you're right, I do want a real woman." The blood drained from Kailen's face, she hadn't wanted to believe herself right and now her worst fears were coming true.

F'tan looked up at the rim of the crater where dozens of dragons perched, outlined against the twilight sky. He shouted up at them, "Hey, you up there! Would one of you please tell Little Miss Hears All the Dragons who the real women are around here?" He looked back at her, "Or maybe we should go ask some of the real women in the green wings who are all starting to grow their hair out so they can braid it and insisting that the male riders call them 'he' rather than 'she' when they are in flight gear?"

Kailen gulped back a sob. After the mating flight, Sheala had encouraged her to spend more time in public as herself and to establish some boundaries about how she wished to be addressed. She had just recently declared that she would only tolerate being referred to with male pronouns when she was in her flight leathers with her hair braided for a thread fall, but she had no idea it was becoming a fashion among the green riders.

"No," F'tan pressed on, "I know what we should do, let's just go right back to the hatching chamber and wake up Leanoth and ask her if that was a real woman who just spent the whole day willingly sharing her pain as she gave birth to all those dragons?"

Kailen was crying openly now, "But... but... I can't give you babies."

So that's what this was about. F'tan shook his head, "Babies? What would I do with babies? You've already given me the children I want the most. You and Leanoth gave me twenty six of them today." He looked into her tear filled eyes and saw there the pain she felt for a dream that would never come true. He hugged her tightly to his chest, "I know you feel like you're being cheated out of motherhood, but you are the rider of a gold dragon. Only a real woman like you could become a mother of dragons"

Listen to him mother... Yes mother... You are a mother of dragons...

The chorus of dragon voices rained down from all parts of the Weyr. They filled her head and her tears quickly changed from those of pain to tears of joy. F'tan smiled as Jarlath let him know what was happening. "You see it's not just me saying this. Now, do we have to go wake up a very cranky dragon in order to finish it once and for all or would you rather have dinner?"

"Dinner," she sniffled. "Do you have any idea how much I love you right now?"

"No, but I have a feeling I'm going to find out later tonight," he said with a smirk.

She punched him in the ribs and wrapped her arms around his waist again. As they walked on towards the common room she said, "All I want right now is a quiet meal, a hot bath and a nice cuddle." Just as they were about to enter the eating hall something occurred to her, "Hey, wasn't there supposed to be a thread fall today?"

o o o

The common room was packed with just about every human being in the Weyr, most were still wearing their flight leathers and all of them were on their feet cheering. F'tan, ever the tactful coward, had propelled her through the entranceway before she had time to realize what was coming. Now she stood alone, red faced with embarrassment, at the center of attention for what appeared to be a celebration in her honor.

Her quiet dinner was now clearly impossible and the chances of her getting a hot bath anytime soon seemed unlikely. Since F'tan had obviously set up this whole thing, she would just have to satisfy herself with revenge by foregoing the nice cuddle as well.

When he finally eased up beside her, she shot him a withering glance that told him exactly what she thought of his 'surprise'. Then she put on a game face and waded out into the crowd.

What seemed like hours later, she was finally seated at a table with her head and arms sprawled out across its surface. F'tan arrived with a steaming mug of klah and set it down in front of her. The aroma revived her just enough that she was able to lift her head from the table and stick her nose in the mug. "Ah," she crooned, "that is just what I need."

"The cooks tell me they have just put a fresh runner beast on the spits and will have it ready for you in no time," he said with amusement.

"Tell them to make it two runner beasts and a half dozen wherries. I'll decide what I want for a main course after I've finished that off. Right now this is what I want most..." she kissed the rim of the klah mug affectionately and took another deep breath trying to work up the energy to lift the mug to her lips.

"Um... Before you drink that, Sheala told be to remind you about this." F'tan dropped a small green packet on the table in front of her and she reacted to it instantly.

"Noooooooo... I don't wanna..." She wrapped her arms protectively around her mug of klah and put a hand over the top. "Don't make me, pleeeeeease?"

F'tan tried so hard not to laugh at this performance that his eyes began watering. "Now why don't you want to take your medicine?"

Kailen's expression changed instantly from pouting teenager to devil woman as she said, "Because when I get you alone tonight I want to be frisky!" F'tan made a mock attempt at escape but she caught his wrist and dragged him back. "If you make me drink that stuff now, you might as well take a wet dishrag to bed with you tonight."

"There's no sense whining about it, you know you have to drink it before you eat."

The pouting teenager was back, "You don't care anything about my feelings. You just want me to grow huge breasts so you can have something to play with."

F'tan sighed, "Kailen just take your medicine like a man!"

Sheala was walking by when she heard this. She firmly believed that F'tan was the only man alive who could get away with saying that to Kailen. She was also certain that F'tan would personally rip the arms off of anyone else who tried. She looked over at the couple and saw Kailen, whose arms were wrapped possessively around a klah mug, sticking her tongue out at the Weyr's second in command.

"Honestly F'tan," she said as she walked up to them, "I don't know how you put up with this child. What are you whining about now Kailen?"

"He's being mean to me Sheala! And after I gave him twenty six of the most beautiful bragging rights you have ever laid eyes on today."

"Twenty six! By the egg, I knew Leanoth was heavy, but twenty six?"

"And they are huge! I swear Sheala two of them have got to be bigger than Leanoth's own shell..."

F'tan sat down. He realized that the discussion had just shifted into girl's only mode. While his weyrmate continued to chatter on, he calmly lifted her unresisting hand from the top of the klah mug and dumped the contents of the herb packet into it. "Thank you sweetheart," she said in between sentences. He watched her idly swirling the vile brew and sipping at it contentedly as they waited for their dinner to arrive.

He marveled at her resiliency, only an hour ago she had been in tears over her own self doubts and now here she was the shining example of a self-assured weyrwoman. Why couldn't she see this in herself as he did?

"She's right about one thing of course," F'tan thought cheerfully to himself, "I am looking forward to playing with her big breasts someday!"

o o o

F'tan leaned back on the soft warm sand, the sound of the ocean waves and the heat of the late afternoon sun relaxing his body as he let his mind drift into its most relaxed state: strategic planning.

First, review the available resources. One large basket of assorted pies, fresh fruit, and sweet pastries; half eaten. Two bottles of exceptional Benden wine; one empty and one nearly so. Two dragons; very clean. One woman; tired but happy and asleep in your arms. One sunset; in the making.

Second, review the operational objectives. Make the woman happy; completed. Have several hours of undisturbed sex with happy woman; operation under way, first wave successful.

Finally, list all obstacles to achieving the operational objectives. None.

It is an unfortunate aspect of dragonrider life that two humans brought together for the first time by a gold dragon's mating flight cannot really be alone with one another for many months due to the queen dragon not being allowed to go between until her eggs are laid. Thus F'tan had been planning this excursion for quite some time. Now he congratulated himself on having pulled off the perfect date.

He had hoped to get a head start on meeting his operational objectives the night before, but it hadn't worked out. When the cooks finally presented Kailen with a huge roasted wherry, she had made them exceedingly happy by finishing off almost the whole thing by herself. They had managed to depart the common room together soon after that with the festivities still very much underway. Most people seemed surprised that Kailen held out for as long as she did.

They stopped by the hatching chamber to check up on Leanoth. What they found brought tears to Kailen's eyes, Jarlath was asleep with his neck lying protectively over Leanoth's slumbering form. F'tan had marveled at his first close up inspection of the clutch and Kailen had not been kidding about the size of some of the eggs.

She had insisted on taking a hot bath before, as she put it, "Making you pay for every single time I had to say 'twenty six' tonight". But when he checked on her some time later he found her fast asleep with her arms draped over the side of the tub. He lifted her out of the water and did his best to dry her off without waking her completely. While he was putting her to bed he realized that once again she had gotten it right. He crawled into bed with his 'wet dishrag' and went to sleep.

This morning he had surprised her with his plans to bring her to this little island beach off the southern coast of Ista. The only wrinkle in his plan was whether or not Leanoth would be willing to leave her eggs, but the gold dragon couldn't wait to get away especially when it meant a bath in the warm ocean.

The couple had spent the day bathing the dragons, playing in the surf and exploring the nearby rocky coves. They had eaten lunch and Kailen had her first taste of wine. It had the desired effect and soon her self doubts seemed to wash away with the tide. They had enjoyed passionate love making on the warm sand before she had finally fallen asleep in his arms.

Now that the sun was beginning to dip towards the horizon, F'tan felt it was time to begin phase two of the operation. "Wake up," he gently shook Kailen's shoulders, "Come on, you don't want to miss your sunset do you?" She stirred in his arms and mumbled something. "What's that?"

"I said," came the groggy reply, "it's about time. I've been waiting months for this you know."

"What are you talking about? I only told you we were coming here this morning."

She looked up at him with feigned shock, "Have you forgotten that you were going to run away with me to this place the morning of the mating flight? Sheala thought it was all a ruse to get me and Leanoth alone so that you could have your wicked way with us."

"I would never do something like that! I didn't even know Leanoth was in heat."

"Don't worry, Sheala knows you're a good boy. She was just upset because I was in my flying leathers that morning." she smiled wistfully.

"Wait, you weren't wearing flying leathers, Sheala was."

Kailen chuckled, "Those were my leathers and she could barely fit in them, she certainly couldn't button up the jacket. Even I can't do that anymore," she glanced at the pile of clothing that included her new flight jacket, one that left little to the imagination concerning the existence of her breasts. "I was wearing her skirt and blouse."

"But why did the two of you switch clothing?"

"Sheala was concerned that I looked too much like a boy in my leathers. She didn't want the bronze riders to be put off by that, not that it mattered in the end," she smiled warmly up into his face.

F'tan puffed up his chest, "Yeah, those poor dragons didn't have a chance with Jarlath in the chase. The strongest most resourceful dragon on all of Pern... what?" Leanoth had just puffed up a cloud of sand and Kailen was giggling. "What's so funny?"

"Well," Kailen stifled another giggle, "Jarlath is indeed all of those wonderful things and more, but that is not why he caught Leanoth."

"What do you mean?" F'tan looked at his dragon. "Jarlath?" Until that moment he had thought it impossible for a dragon to look embarrassed or guilty, but Jarlath was having a difficult time looking in F'tan's direction, in spite of the fact they were facing one another.

"Don't blame him just for taking my advice."

"Advice? What advice? When did you give him advice? Surely not during the flight?"

"Oh course not silly, we were much too busy then. It was when you took me from Sheala. I was pretty far gone by then, but you picked me up and held me in your arms and I just knew you were the one. That's when I told Jarlath to hold back and conserve his strength until all the others gave up."

"You told him what? What were you thinking? What if one of the other dragons had caught her first? He wouldn't have had a chance if he were holding back."

"But they didn't catch her, I made sure of that."

"You? What did you do?"

"Well, every time one of the other dragons got anywhere near Leanoth I would just stare at his rider until he got unsettled. The dragon became confused and would drop back, after a while they were just dropping out altogether."

"Wait, they became unsettled just because you stared at them? You stared at me lots of times and it never made me nervous."

"Yes, but whenever I looked at you I was staring into those gorgeous eyes of yours... not between your legs."

F'tan's mouth hung open. He tried to imagine the hungry almost feral face Kailen had worn that day being turned towards his most tender regions. "And that was enough to unnerve them all?"

"No, some of them needed a bit more. For them I had to lick my teeth a few times."

Ice water flowed through F'tan's veins and pooled in his groin. Yes, that would have done it for most riders. "But... how did you know something like that would work?"

Kailen stared at him with wide eyes, "Well, I do have a rather unique understanding of the situation you know." She arched her eyebrows a few times as understanding came slowly to her weyrmate.

"Oh... right..." He was silent for some time, letting the import of all this sink in. Jarlath just had to follow her advice and Leanoth was his for the taking, but Kailen had not chosen Jarlath she had chosen him. "Why?" he asked finally, "Why me?"

It was Kailen's turn to be silent for a while. "Because I knew that you wouldn't hurt me. I was so frightened! No one seemed to know what was going to happen to me. I never dared hope that you might love me, but from the moment you held me in your arms I was certain that you wouldn't hurt me."

F'tan took her by the shoulders and turned her gently around to face him. "I could never hurt you Kailen and I will never let anyone else hurt you ever again." He hugged her to his chest and stroked her hair, "And I do love you... very, very much." Then he kissed her and kept on kissing her until the sun had already begun to dip below the horizon.

"Oh shards," he whispered, "your sunset..."

"We haven't missed it yet, look up," she tilted her head back and he followed her gaze, "See how the sky is nearly black and the stars are just beginning to appear." She stood up and walked towards the ocean, "Now look out there," she said spreading her arms wide to the setting sun, "where the sky is still blue and purple. This is my favorite part of the day, when I have always felt happiest,"

Kailen continued down the beach until she was standing next to her dragon. She stood there, staring out at the sunset, bathed in the golden light reflecting off Leanoth's side. Silhouetted against the setting sun this way, F'tan was suddenly struck by how beautiful she truly was.

She was petite, dwarfed by the bulk of the dragon lying beside her. While other girls her age had sprouted in height over the last turn, Kailen had hardly grown at all since her impression. In spite of her stature, her legs were long, slim and exceptionally well muscled. Her hips, though narrow in comparison to other women, were just as well muscled as her legs. They were the legs of a runner, but F'tan had never actually seen her running. Instead she seemed to remain in constant motion at all times.

Golden beads of sweat glistened off her well-defined buttocks and drew his eye up across the gentle curve of hip leading to her slim waist. She was thin, but not the least bit skinny because not a single rib showed along the curve of her torso. Hidden from him now were the firm developing breasts he so often obsessed over, but in plain view were her exquisite shoulders. Unlike her legs her shoulders and arms were delicate, but he knew that hidden within them was more strength than most people gave her credit for.

Splayed across her shoulder blades was a sheet of hair the same color as the sand on which she stood. It felt like soft flax between his fingers and smelled sweetly of the herb concoction she drank each day. As he watched, she placed her long delicate fingers behind her head and lifted her curtain of hair so that he could just see the nape of her neck.

A shiver ran through her and she arched her back in pleasure as the gentle breeze from the ocean touched her soft skin. She let her hair fall from her fingers and it caught in the breeze, momentarily suspended like a sandstorm before falling gently around her shoulders once again.

F'tan found that, try as hard as he might, he could no longer think of Kailen as the boy he once knew. The person before him was a woman in mind and body. Despite her often voiced protests to the contrary, he did not really care that her womanhood stopped between her legs. After they had worked out the basics, Kailen had become an ardent partner and what she lacked physically she had always made up for with enthusiasm and lately with innovation.

The truth was he had fallen in love with her before the mating flight. That morning he had indeed offered to fly off with her in hopes that he and Jarlath might have a better chance. Jarlath had eaten far too much the day that F'tan and Kailen had wrestled in the feeding pen and he had little chance of competing against some of the other bronze dragons if it had come down to a contest of speed alone.

Thinking now how this remarkable girl had played a far more clever game that day, only made him wonder why so many people failed to see her potential. One thing F'tan was certain of, life with Kailen would never be ordinary!

The sun finally dipped below the horizon and Kailen turned back towards F'tan. She walked slowly up the beach and knelt in front of him. Smiling she said, "I want to make love to you right now, while the sky looks just like this."

He nodded and started to sit up, but she put her hand on his chest and said softly, "No..." She kept pushing on his chest until he finally relaxed and lay back in the sand. "I want to see the sky reflected in your eyes."

Leanoth swung her head across the sand towards Jarlath and he did the same until they were touching muzzle to muzzle.

We are supposed to talk to one another now, thought Leanoth.

Why? thought back Jarlath

I'm not sure, but she says she likes to hear dragons talking at sunset...

"Will the two of you please be quiet!" snapped Kailen mentally, "How am I supposed to enjoy this with the two of you yapping all the time?"

o o o

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All characters in this story are a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead is purely coincidental.

This work is copyright © 2005 by Juliet Carnell, it is not public domain and all rights are reserved. This work is not for publication. This work may not be reproduced, distributed or sold in any format or media. This work may not be included in any collection without the express written permission of the author.

Dragonriders of Pern® is the registered trademark of Anne McCaffrey.

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