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monaboyd Jun. 30th, 2004 01:38 pm)
cleanbc.livejournal.com posting in monaboyd Jun. 30th, 2004 01:38 pm)Title: Don’t Hesitate, Chapter 9/10
Pairing: DM/BB
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cleanbc aka Coll
Rating: Probably PG-13 or R at the most graphic point, in the whole series.
Summary: What would happen if you feel asleep, and woke up somewhere not on this Earth? Billy and Dom go on a trip.
Disclaimer: Ok, so I don’t know, own, or have any influence whatsoever on Billy or Dom. This is AU, so it obviously did not happen. In addition, I stole many descriptions and ideas from Anne McCaffrey and her Dragonriders of Pern series, so the parts when it is good, I might not have written that.
Feedback: Always welcome, of any sort.
Notes: A completed story. This is a combination of two of my most favorite things, and I am stunned at myself that I did not think of this earlier. I want to thank my betas, everyone I sent the story to in it’s beginning of the end phases, you all really helped me improve the story, and make the story easier for those who haven’t read Dragonriders. I hope you all can overcome your hesitancy regarding AUs and give my story a read.
Previous chapters:
One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight
Billy knelt as Dom had done, and the brown, a bit bigger than Merranth, butted at his knees. He looked up at Billy and Impression occurred. Billy knew that he would never be lonely again. The small ache that had held his chest ever since his parents died was completely gone. His eyes watered for the second time that day, and he embraced his brown. He could see Dom looking at him as he hugged the hatchling. Their eyes met and there was total understanding mixed with the awe-filled joy of the moment.
“His name is Pippith,” Billy said aloud, never taking his eyes from Dom’s. Dom smiled.
“Well, I’m back.” Billy looked up as he closed the book. His captivated audience stared for a moment, and then started applauding.
Billy put the book back on one of the shelves in the Admin office as people started milling out of the room. The copy was very valuable, because it was the first one that Aivas had printed in Pernese. And now Aivas was gone. After the success of the mission to rid Pern of Thread forever, Aivas had shut himself (for that was how everyone thought of him, as a male entity) down, not wanting the planet to get too dependent on him. The students at Landing still had access to the wealth of information that was stored in the computer’s database, but the artificial intelligence had totally ceased.
Billy remembered the day very well that Aivas had, at least in his mind, “died.” All that remained of his personality was a single red light and a blinking message that said, “And a time for every purpose under heaven.” Billy had to explain that one to everyone.
In the two Turns – the Pernese term for year –, 11 months, and 18 days since he and Dom had impressed Pippith and Merranth, Billy’s life had changed more than he had ever thought possible, even considering their first six months. Directly after the hatching, it had been decided (again, no one quite knew by whom) that they must move to Benden Weyr, as that was where they needed to be to raise their dragons properly. There was the weyrling training, which was learning everything one needed to know about being a dragonrider. They had finished that about a Turn ago (well, one Turn, five months, and a day, but who was counting).
Then of course there was fighting Thread. Riding Pippith had been horrible frightening for Billy at first, as he was afraid of heights, but having the support of his dragon was an amazing thing that helped him overcome this fear after the first few flights. Dom of course, had had no problem. Fortunately, Dom had enough energy to keep up with his green. In fact, there had been times when she tired him out enough that she had to carry him back to his weyr.
Billy walked out of the Admin building and over to where Pippith was sleeping. The brown had just recently reached his full growth. They weyrlingmaster – who turned out to be just as old as Billy, and who quickly became one of their closest Pernese friends, as he sympathized with their more than slight difference in age from the other weyrlings – had told Billy that Pippith was an extremely well-proportioned dragon. Billy did not know about correct dragon proportions, but as he approached Pippith today, he thought for the millionth time that his was the most amazing dragon in the entire world.
Pippith, lad, wake up. We have to go back to Benden. We have duties to do, and you need to eat.
Pippith roused and made the dragon equivalent of a sleepy grumble. Will we get to see Merranth? Not that it had surprised anyone – with their riders being best friends and all – but from the first week, Pippith and Merranth had been very close. Consequently, Dom and Billy could each hear and talk to each other’s dragons if the need arose, though the frequency of these exchanges had lessened as the dragons grew.
Billy chuckled and reached up to scratch the great brown head affectionately. Aye, we will see Dom and Merranth when we get back to Benden. They do live there too, you know. Not quite used to Pippith’s size yet, Billy scrambled up onto his back and strapped himself in to the riding straps. Pippith crouched and took off, giving Billy an amazing view of Landing before he went between.
++++
Dom was sitting in the kitchen, mending his riding straps when it began. He liked to sit in here, mostly because the women of the lower caverns would often times slip him some extra food, but also because he would get to see most of the population of the weyr coming in and out. Often riders would join him, to talk about the previous Fall (the most recent time that Thread fell) or to ask him questions about Aivas or Earth. He had made particularly good friends with his wingleader, F’nor, a man much like himself. F’nor was actually F’lar’s half-brother and Manora’s son, but he had an ease with people that his brother and mother lacked. He and F’lar did, however, share their sire’s bright, thoughtful amber eyes.
Today, however, F’nor was down south with his weyrmate, Brekke, tending to some business. So Dom just sat by himself at a table, inhaling the combined smell of porridge, klah, and the leather of his straps. He could feel the light mental touch of Merranth asleep by the lake. The lazy git was always sunning herself these days, and he had noticed that her green was growing more brilliant every day. He smiled to himself; lazy as she was, she was the best thing that had ever happened to him, and he loved her for it.
He had just tied off the last knot when a couple of men whom he recognized as blue and brown riders came rushing into the kitchen. He looked up, and saw they were staring at him with a kind of glassy, bulging eyed look.
“What?” He looked from face to face expectantly.
“The male dragons are blooding their kill. Merranth will rise soon,” one of the blue riders choked out.
Dom’s eyes widened. As if in a trance, he slowly set down his work and walked out of the kitchen cavern. Sure enough, he could hear the brassy bugles, the same ones that had awakened him on his first day, off by the herds. Had he been in a more aware state, he would have heard the cries of the animals as well as the rushing of people in and out of the Lower Caverns of the weyr, preparing for the rising of the green.
Then Merranth awoke, and Dom reeled. This was no longer the mind of an innocent, complacent, sun-loving dragon. She was fully-grown, and filled with a hunger, a desire of a strength Dom had never felt before. Though he had learned the theory of dragon mating in his weyrling class, nothing could have prepared him for this. He remembered the words of the weyrlingmaster.
You must keep her under control, and above all, do not let her gorge. A long and high mating flight is always best, and a full stomach will slow her down.
Just as the weyrlingmaster had said, the first thing Merranth did when she woke up was to head for the herds. As she bit into the first buck, Dom exerted all the mental pressure he had on her, willing her not to eat, but just to blood the animal. She resisted, but he won out. Again, with the second kill, he had to use every ounce of strength he could muster to keep her from eating the hot meat. By the third one, however, she had realized that her need was not for meat but for blood.
After this third one, she leaned back and let out a roar like nothing Dom had heard before. A line of blood dripped out of the corner of her open mouth and ran down her brilliant emerald neck. She was challenging her suitors, and they responded in turn by crouching around her in a circle. Dom, connected so strongly to Merranth, barely noticed that he and the brown and blue riders were being led into a room off the bowl. One thought kept him grounded. Where was Billy? He rode a brown, he should be here.
“Billy?” Dom let out a garbled cry, stumbling half-blind, only to find himself trapped in the circle of riders. “Billyyyy!” he cried out desperately. But he was too late. At that moment, Merranth launched herself into the air, and Dom was no longer aware of anything on the ground. He was Merranth.
++++
As soon as he emerged over the bowl of Benden, Billy knew something was wrong. The Bowl was strangely quiet and inactive for this time of day. Usually there were people milling around, dragons popping in and out, weyrling classes learning about their new life partners. Now, however, the gaze of the entire weyr seemed to be fixed on a group of blue and brown dragons surrounding a green.
Merranth is rising! Pippith’s words came loudly into Billy’s head. His heart jumped. Of course, they had learned about dragon mating as part of the classes, but to have Merranth rise so soon. She’d barely been born.
She’s not a baby any more, and neither am I, interjected Pippith into Billy’s thoughts as he dropped, and rather quickly for Billy’s tastes, down to land near the clump of dragons. Go.
Billy knew what he had to do now. There was no question in his mind. It was as if everything had led up to this point. He almost catapulted off Pippith’s back and ran towards the bowl. A young man came rushing out to meet him.
“They’re in here, quickly!” The teen gestured to a queen’s weyr that Billy knew to have no resident at the time. As he entered, he saw a group of riders, slightly wild-eyed, forming a loose circle around…
“Dom!” he cried out. He pushed the riders out of the way to try to get towards Dom. He could feel himself getting anxious, partly in response to Pippith’s excitement and partly due to the nature of this situation. “Dom!” he called again.
Dom could not hear him anymore. He wasn’t standing in the room with the other riders; he was with Merranth, exulting in her strength, in her flight, determined to outsmart those who pursued her. Just let them try to catch her!
Never had her wings responded so fully to her demands. Never had she flown so high, soaring, veering, gliding. The sun flowed across her body, its rays burning into her eyes as she flew on and ever upward. The heat was unendurable. She glided obliquely to the right, caught movement below her, and, sweeping her wings back, dropped down, screaming with delight as she fell among the startled browns and blues.
One of them tried to entangle her with his lashing tail and fell, his flight rhythm disrupted. She beat upward again, losing a few, calling defiance and deliberately cutting across the path of a second, a brown, who, in her heat, she had failed to notice. But, in her desire to flaunt her flight superiority, she brushed just too close to him, and he veered, jamming his wing tip against hers. Her forward speed was momentarily checked. Before she could get away from him, he caught her, neck twining in hers in that instant. Locked together, they fell toward the glowing mountains so far below.
Pairing: DM/BB
Author:
cleanbc aka CollRating: Probably PG-13 or R at the most graphic point, in the whole series.
Summary: What would happen if you feel asleep, and woke up somewhere not on this Earth? Billy and Dom go on a trip.
Disclaimer: Ok, so I don’t know, own, or have any influence whatsoever on Billy or Dom. This is AU, so it obviously did not happen. In addition, I stole many descriptions and ideas from Anne McCaffrey and her Dragonriders of Pern series, so the parts when it is good, I might not have written that.
Feedback: Always welcome, of any sort.
Notes: A completed story. This is a combination of two of my most favorite things, and I am stunned at myself that I did not think of this earlier. I want to thank my betas, everyone I sent the story to in it’s beginning of the end phases, you all really helped me improve the story, and make the story easier for those who haven’t read Dragonriders. I hope you all can overcome your hesitancy regarding AUs and give my story a read.
Previous chapters:
One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight
Billy knelt as Dom had done, and the brown, a bit bigger than Merranth, butted at his knees. He looked up at Billy and Impression occurred. Billy knew that he would never be lonely again. The small ache that had held his chest ever since his parents died was completely gone. His eyes watered for the second time that day, and he embraced his brown. He could see Dom looking at him as he hugged the hatchling. Their eyes met and there was total understanding mixed with the awe-filled joy of the moment.
“His name is Pippith,” Billy said aloud, never taking his eyes from Dom’s. Dom smiled.
“Well, I’m back.” Billy looked up as he closed the book. His captivated audience stared for a moment, and then started applauding.
Billy put the book back on one of the shelves in the Admin office as people started milling out of the room. The copy was very valuable, because it was the first one that Aivas had printed in Pernese. And now Aivas was gone. After the success of the mission to rid Pern of Thread forever, Aivas had shut himself (for that was how everyone thought of him, as a male entity) down, not wanting the planet to get too dependent on him. The students at Landing still had access to the wealth of information that was stored in the computer’s database, but the artificial intelligence had totally ceased.
Billy remembered the day very well that Aivas had, at least in his mind, “died.” All that remained of his personality was a single red light and a blinking message that said, “And a time for every purpose under heaven.” Billy had to explain that one to everyone.
In the two Turns – the Pernese term for year –, 11 months, and 18 days since he and Dom had impressed Pippith and Merranth, Billy’s life had changed more than he had ever thought possible, even considering their first six months. Directly after the hatching, it had been decided (again, no one quite knew by whom) that they must move to Benden Weyr, as that was where they needed to be to raise their dragons properly. There was the weyrling training, which was learning everything one needed to know about being a dragonrider. They had finished that about a Turn ago (well, one Turn, five months, and a day, but who was counting).
Then of course there was fighting Thread. Riding Pippith had been horrible frightening for Billy at first, as he was afraid of heights, but having the support of his dragon was an amazing thing that helped him overcome this fear after the first few flights. Dom of course, had had no problem. Fortunately, Dom had enough energy to keep up with his green. In fact, there had been times when she tired him out enough that she had to carry him back to his weyr.
Billy walked out of the Admin building and over to where Pippith was sleeping. The brown had just recently reached his full growth. They weyrlingmaster – who turned out to be just as old as Billy, and who quickly became one of their closest Pernese friends, as he sympathized with their more than slight difference in age from the other weyrlings – had told Billy that Pippith was an extremely well-proportioned dragon. Billy did not know about correct dragon proportions, but as he approached Pippith today, he thought for the millionth time that his was the most amazing dragon in the entire world.
Pippith, lad, wake up. We have to go back to Benden. We have duties to do, and you need to eat.
Pippith roused and made the dragon equivalent of a sleepy grumble. Will we get to see Merranth? Not that it had surprised anyone – with their riders being best friends and all – but from the first week, Pippith and Merranth had been very close. Consequently, Dom and Billy could each hear and talk to each other’s dragons if the need arose, though the frequency of these exchanges had lessened as the dragons grew.
Billy chuckled and reached up to scratch the great brown head affectionately. Aye, we will see Dom and Merranth when we get back to Benden. They do live there too, you know. Not quite used to Pippith’s size yet, Billy scrambled up onto his back and strapped himself in to the riding straps. Pippith crouched and took off, giving Billy an amazing view of Landing before he went between.
++++
Dom was sitting in the kitchen, mending his riding straps when it began. He liked to sit in here, mostly because the women of the lower caverns would often times slip him some extra food, but also because he would get to see most of the population of the weyr coming in and out. Often riders would join him, to talk about the previous Fall (the most recent time that Thread fell) or to ask him questions about Aivas or Earth. He had made particularly good friends with his wingleader, F’nor, a man much like himself. F’nor was actually F’lar’s half-brother and Manora’s son, but he had an ease with people that his brother and mother lacked. He and F’lar did, however, share their sire’s bright, thoughtful amber eyes.
Today, however, F’nor was down south with his weyrmate, Brekke, tending to some business. So Dom just sat by himself at a table, inhaling the combined smell of porridge, klah, and the leather of his straps. He could feel the light mental touch of Merranth asleep by the lake. The lazy git was always sunning herself these days, and he had noticed that her green was growing more brilliant every day. He smiled to himself; lazy as she was, she was the best thing that had ever happened to him, and he loved her for it.
He had just tied off the last knot when a couple of men whom he recognized as blue and brown riders came rushing into the kitchen. He looked up, and saw they were staring at him with a kind of glassy, bulging eyed look.
“What?” He looked from face to face expectantly.
“The male dragons are blooding their kill. Merranth will rise soon,” one of the blue riders choked out.
Dom’s eyes widened. As if in a trance, he slowly set down his work and walked out of the kitchen cavern. Sure enough, he could hear the brassy bugles, the same ones that had awakened him on his first day, off by the herds. Had he been in a more aware state, he would have heard the cries of the animals as well as the rushing of people in and out of the Lower Caverns of the weyr, preparing for the rising of the green.
Then Merranth awoke, and Dom reeled. This was no longer the mind of an innocent, complacent, sun-loving dragon. She was fully-grown, and filled with a hunger, a desire of a strength Dom had never felt before. Though he had learned the theory of dragon mating in his weyrling class, nothing could have prepared him for this. He remembered the words of the weyrlingmaster.
You must keep her under control, and above all, do not let her gorge. A long and high mating flight is always best, and a full stomach will slow her down.
Just as the weyrlingmaster had said, the first thing Merranth did when she woke up was to head for the herds. As she bit into the first buck, Dom exerted all the mental pressure he had on her, willing her not to eat, but just to blood the animal. She resisted, but he won out. Again, with the second kill, he had to use every ounce of strength he could muster to keep her from eating the hot meat. By the third one, however, she had realized that her need was not for meat but for blood.
After this third one, she leaned back and let out a roar like nothing Dom had heard before. A line of blood dripped out of the corner of her open mouth and ran down her brilliant emerald neck. She was challenging her suitors, and they responded in turn by crouching around her in a circle. Dom, connected so strongly to Merranth, barely noticed that he and the brown and blue riders were being led into a room off the bowl. One thought kept him grounded. Where was Billy? He rode a brown, he should be here.
“Billy?” Dom let out a garbled cry, stumbling half-blind, only to find himself trapped in the circle of riders. “Billyyyy!” he cried out desperately. But he was too late. At that moment, Merranth launched herself into the air, and Dom was no longer aware of anything on the ground. He was Merranth.
++++
As soon as he emerged over the bowl of Benden, Billy knew something was wrong. The Bowl was strangely quiet and inactive for this time of day. Usually there were people milling around, dragons popping in and out, weyrling classes learning about their new life partners. Now, however, the gaze of the entire weyr seemed to be fixed on a group of blue and brown dragons surrounding a green.
Merranth is rising! Pippith’s words came loudly into Billy’s head. His heart jumped. Of course, they had learned about dragon mating as part of the classes, but to have Merranth rise so soon. She’d barely been born.
She’s not a baby any more, and neither am I, interjected Pippith into Billy’s thoughts as he dropped, and rather quickly for Billy’s tastes, down to land near the clump of dragons. Go.
Billy knew what he had to do now. There was no question in his mind. It was as if everything had led up to this point. He almost catapulted off Pippith’s back and ran towards the bowl. A young man came rushing out to meet him.
“They’re in here, quickly!” The teen gestured to a queen’s weyr that Billy knew to have no resident at the time. As he entered, he saw a group of riders, slightly wild-eyed, forming a loose circle around…
“Dom!” he cried out. He pushed the riders out of the way to try to get towards Dom. He could feel himself getting anxious, partly in response to Pippith’s excitement and partly due to the nature of this situation. “Dom!” he called again.
Dom could not hear him anymore. He wasn’t standing in the room with the other riders; he was with Merranth, exulting in her strength, in her flight, determined to outsmart those who pursued her. Just let them try to catch her!
Never had her wings responded so fully to her demands. Never had she flown so high, soaring, veering, gliding. The sun flowed across her body, its rays burning into her eyes as she flew on and ever upward. The heat was unendurable. She glided obliquely to the right, caught movement below her, and, sweeping her wings back, dropped down, screaming with delight as she fell among the startled browns and blues.
One of them tried to entangle her with his lashing tail and fell, his flight rhythm disrupted. She beat upward again, losing a few, calling defiance and deliberately cutting across the path of a second, a brown, who, in her heat, she had failed to notice. But, in her desire to flaunt her flight superiority, she brushed just too close to him, and he veered, jamming his wing tip against hers. Her forward speed was momentarily checked. Before she could get away from him, he caught her, neck twining in hers in that instant. Locked together, they fell toward the glowing mountains so far below.
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hooray for pern!
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Re: hooray for pern!
one more chapter to go
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seriously, this is great and i'm looking forward to the next part.
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the next part will be up as soon as i'm done responding to comments
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