excitement.
Ah, it starts,’ Zulaya said, smiling in anticipation. -Oh, I love
Hatchings!” Hand in hand, the two Weyrleaders raced to the entrance and
called out the news, scarcely needed, for the Telgar dragons were
already reacting to the queen’s maternal croon with their deep masculine
humming.
The Weyr Bowl became active with dragons a-wing in excitement, flipping
here and there on seemingly unavoidable collision courses: with the
Weyrlingmaster herding the candidates forward: with parents and friends
of the lucky boys and girls rushing across the hot sands to take their
places in the amphitheatre: hustling to get the best seating for the
Impression about to happen.
K’vin sent Zulaya back to keep Meranath company as he urged people
inside, checked the nervous white-clad candidates who had been halted in
a clump near the entrance until the spectators were all seated.
You’ve long enough to wait on the hot sands as it is,’ T’dam, the
Weyrlingmaster, told them. Singe your feet, you could, out there .
All this time the humming was rising in volume: Meranath joined by all
the other dragons in a chorus of tones that Sheledon – and others had
tried to imitate but never quite succeeded. Meranath’s throat was
swollen with her sound, which continued unabated and seemingly without
her needing to draw breath. Soon, as the volume increased, her chest
and belly would begin to vibrate too, with the intensity of her
humming. K’vin was aware of the usual response in himself, a jumble of
emotions; a joy that threatened to burst his heart through his chest,
pride, hope, fear, yearning – oddly enough, hunger was part of it – and
a sadness that, on some occasions, could make him weep.
Zulaya always wept at Hatchings – at least, until Impressions began.
Then she was jubilant, picking up on her queen’s acceptance of her
clutch’s partnering.
In Fort Hold’s storage, there were file boxes full of early
psychological profiles about the effect of Hatching on riders, dragons
and the new weyrlings. The bonding that occurred was of such complexity
and depth that no other union could be compared with it: almost
overwhelming in the initial moment of recognition, and certainly the
most intense emotion the young candidates had ever experienced.
Some youngsters had no trouble at all adapting to the intense and
intrusive link: some suffered feelings of inadequacy and doubt. Every
Weyr had its own compendium of information about what to do in
such-and-such a situation. And every weyrling was assiduously trained
and supported through the early months of the relationship until the
Weyrleaders and Weyrlingmaster deemed he/ she was stable enough to take
responsibility for her/ himself and her/ his dragon.
But then, a rider was the dragon, and the dragon the rider, in a
partnership that was so unwavering, its cessation resulted in suicide
for the dragon who lost his mate. The unfortunate rider was as apt to
take his life as not. If he lived, he was only half a man, totally
bereft by his loss. Female riders were less apt to suicide; they at
least had the option of sublimating their loss by having children.
When the little fire-lizards, who had supplied the genetic material to
bio-engineer the larger dragons, had still been available, a former male
rider found some solace in such a companionship. Only three fire-lizard
clutches had been found in Ista in the last five decades, though it was
thought more might be found in the Southern Continent, but that quest
had so far been futile. The vets had decided that some sort of odd
disease had infected the creatures on northern warm beaches, reducing
their numbers and/ or their clutches. Whatever the reason, no-one had
fire-lizard companions any more.
As soon as most of the guests had crossed the hot sands, T’dam allowed
the candidates to make a loose circle around the eggs. There was no
golden egg in this clutch – a circumstance which had both relieved and
worried the Weyrleaders.
They had five junior queens, which was quite enough for Telgar’s low
flight wing. In fact, there was no dearth of queens in any of the
Weyrs, but there was safety in having enough breeders.