She was almost six turns old when she started to open up. She would act shy toward one Lord but then boldly and brashly toward his servants. She would be a little Lady, no doubt about it. She could flirt - if a six year old knew what she was doing, Sega was that child. All the while, she was carefully thinking about who spoke with whom, which person seemed to dislike or be enfatuated with another.

By the time she was in her teens, there were half a dozen highly ranked Lordlings following her around the Hold. They would do her bidding, without question most of them. A dangerous sport, for a young woman. They demanded payment sometimes, which she gave them in the form of a rare kiss or a snuggle close during a dance. Nothing more than that. She was hardly a loose young lady. Proper Ladies did not sleep with anyone before they married.

That was the theory anyway. She had made one mistake with a particular Lordling, a burly young man who did not take one kiss for a reward. He left a painful bruise on her thigh, but she did not resist him. Not then, anyway. He took her virginity from her without asking, and certainly without the intent to marry her.

He stood in the doorway of the storage room he'd dragged her into, putting his tunic on straight. "That'll teach you to withhold anything from a man," he said gruffly. His face was still flushed, he was clearly unsteady.

"Oh, hardly," Sega replied. "I was not withholding, dear Parral, but if that's the best you can do, you're never going to keep a woman interested in you. Go about your business. Don't come to me again. If you do, I'll have your dogs buried alive." She paused, seeing the sudden realization in his eyes. He'd never spoken to her about his dogs. How did she know? "Yes.... imagine them. Trying to bark and finding nothing but dirt..." Sega wove words low and harsh, while she slowly cleaned herself up and dressed. As she put her sandals back on, standing up and leaning her foot up to do it, so she did not have to bend over and lose eye contact with Parral, Sega drove the last spike in. "I would be sure to put them in the same grave you buried your 'unborn' daughter last year."

With that, Parral went white. "How did you - There isn't any-"

"Parral, if you do what you did to me, to one more woman, I will make sure that every living person in this world knows your indescretion." Sega sneered but Parral was so horrified by the revelation that he could hardly see her. "... With a drudge, Parral. You've played a bad game. You lost. Go home, and think about how you'd ever explain yourself to your Lord Father, and your fragile mother. What would she think?"

Sega moved by him, close enough to touch but she was loathe to do so. She gave him one last scathing glare, and walked away.

***

The embroidery was going nicely. It was a Lady's activity, highborn women did the best embroidery because they had the most time to devote to the task. When they did not have to wash clothing or dishes, tidy up a Hold or mend things, cook, work the runners... Those things were left to drudges in high families. There was no need for a Lady to ever even see how a runner's bridle fit onto its head. A true Lady did not know how hard it was to pick cotton or make thread. They only knew the joy of sitting atop a fine steed and going through the countryside, they only knew how a well-made thread glided through expensive cloth and made the best colorful patterns.

Sega examined her work. It was hardly the best of the sewing circle she was with, but it was not the worst either. She normally remained quiet and just listened to the bickering of the other women, but today there was a theme to their waves of chatter.

Dragons. Sega was always quite keen on them, but they came too rarely for her tastes. Every few months they would come and she watched them from her Hold's high courtyard. Though Sega's family lived in the Holders area of the fissure where Caledrus was built, her home in particular was on a high spot across from the Dragonflats. She'd discovered the way that she could watch the dragons come and go at an early age, and it was the single thing that distracted her from listening in to other people's gossip.

"I think riders are smelly creatures," said one Lady as she poked the embroidery needle through her white cloth. "They are hardly fit partners for a Lady."

"Oh, I disagree," said another, younger girl. "They're quite handsome, and strong - their hands might be calloused but they certainly have quite a swagger!"

"That is because they're all bow-legged," said a third with a grin. "My brother is a dragon rider, he was lucky enough to be Searched some years ago."

Of course, they all knew that, but it was the conversation that kept their brains busy while their hands worked. Sega nodded.

"Didn't he impress quite well?" Sega asked. The girl nodded and a grin spread across her face.

"Yes, he's a brown rider, and he's flying a wingthird position now. He's very talented."

"Don't you think you'd like to ride some day?" Sega asked. "If your brother was good for a brown, surely?"

"That sort of thing does run in families," quipped the first young Lady, "but Ladies are not expected to do such physical activities. You would do well to remember that. Both of you," she warned, glancing between the other girl and Sega.

"I think that there are quite a few women riders in my family. I should check up on it," Sega said. "If a woman is strong enough to support her family, she's obviously strong enough to ride and care for a dragon. There would be servants at a Weyr as well as Hold, you know. For the mundane things."

"But no time to dance!" Said another of the group. "And hardly any nice men."

"Riders can be very nice," said the sister of the rider.

They all gave off an 'ooooh,' noise when they realized what she meant. All but the eldest. She was quite set against riders for some reason. Sega wondered why.

So after their afternoon of embroidering and talking, Sega did two things. First, she looked into her mother's records where indeed she did find a good geneology which listed half a dozen women and more than that in men, on both sides of her family, who were riders. Well placed, though most of the women rode greens. One Queen rider among them, several generations before. Sega was a bit startled to find her mother standing behind her.

"You know that chart needs updating," Setiga said. "I haven't even included your youngest brother." She reached around and held the chart in her hands. "Your great grandmother was a fine rider, I wish that you could have met her."

"Riders don't come here often enough, mother," Sega said. "Say, do you know why Hedrel is so angry when someone brings dragons up? She was quite adamant we change the subject today. It seemed a shame, because Telize was eager to talk about her brother."

"Ah, yes, the brown rider," Setiga nodded. "Well, since you asked, and since this is the only thing you ever want to talk about without being cruel," she grinned at her daughter knowing full well where her attitude came from, "Hedrel was searched, the same as I was. She just took it badly. Her uncle died in training on a dragon, and I believe she lost another relative earlier."

"But both you and she were Searched?"

"Before you were born, of course," Setiga said. "But she was already betrothed, and she hardly wanted to ruin her chances at having a Hold to herself."

"If she wanted a Hold all to herself, she should stop squeezing out babies," Sega muttered, and her mother gave off a surprised snorting laugh.

"Sega! That's terrible to say!"

"But you still laughed," she said, "mother."

"Have I squeezed out altogether too many babies, my dear?" Setiga, in a very unLadylike manner, leaned up to her daugher and winked.

"You could stop now," Sega said. "Three brothers and a sister is enough for me, so," Sega waved her hand imperiously, "you have permission to stop now."

Her mother grinned and let out a comical breath. "Well, that's a relief. And here I am coming onto my changes and all."

"I wonder why they don't allow more older women to ride dragons," Sega said, absently. She looked at the chart. "I mean, young boys and girls are idiots."

"They're not stupid," Setiga told her. "They're merely inexperienced."

"Exactly," Sega countered. "But then why not have more experienced people doing the work? I suppose that a lifetime of sitting and sewing hardly prepares a woman for it, but expecting a young girl to do the same? I think it would make more sense to take older people, than younger."

"But the dragons live a long time, if they're not wounded."

Sega nodded. Eventually, she went to her room and thought about the whole day. The rumor was that there was a dragon wing coming - a whole wing? For some demonstration or what? She wondered... She dreamed of dragons and sewing, and how her embroidery skills could some day be used to help patch up a dragon's injured wing...

*** (this search takes place after the Kshau Protectorate shifts to Alskyr - without having told anyone about it.)***

The whole Hold was excited. A trio of dragons had arrived - one was from Alabaster, but the other two were foreign to their eyes. Sega followed the batch of young people to the Dragon Flats, turning only once to notice that her mother was standing in the Hold's window watching, just where Sega knew she could see the whole of the flats. She grinned to herself.

Everyone around was amazed at the size of the dragons, and their different features. Sega looked at each one and decided that they were fine creatures indeed. Their riders too were quite impressive.

Sega walked around the Flats, she listened in on everyone's conversations by habit. The wind brought to her the sounds of Cendar and Aaryea speaking. "Have they said anything yet?" Aaryea asked.

"Not yet - but they're going to. I think the one is from another part of the Kshau Protectorate," Cendar announced, "but I don't know who the other is."

The riders motioned for everyone to please quiet down. The brown rider from Alabaster was K'yle, the Lord Holder's son. There was a blue rider, T'shen by name, whose travels through the Protectorate were quite amazing. The third was a woman, but quite the odd one, on a gold dragoness. For some reason, it looked as though this woman had ... fur and a tail. No one quite believed it until she dropped to the ground and started talking to her companions, but sure enough there were small ears poking out over her mop of silver hair, and a long tuft-tipped tail that swished about.

People began muttering almost immediately, but K'yle shushed them with a wave of his hand. "We're here on search, yes! We're going to give an announcement that's a bit important, to your Lords!" He answered several questions quickly, and then turned to his dragon who bellowed for quiet again. "Thanks - now listen - the Protectorate is going through some drastic changes. We've found a place that's better than all this," he waved his hand but few understood what he meant by that cryptic remark.

They continued to answer typical questions, but avoided mentioning this odd event, and then began allowing people near the dragons so they might be searched.

Sega joined Aaryea and the others, and started their approach. Cendar snuffed, "there's Caledrua herself," at the sharp-tongued woman who was the eldest daughter of the Lord Holder of Caledrus. "Does she really think she'll get Searched?"

"I think she just was," Aaryea sighed, blue eyes showing not concern, but not glee either. They managed to wind their way around to the golden dragoness, who passed over three others before sniffing intently at this pair.

It was T'shen's dragon who came to Sega, looking her over with a brilliantly sapphire-sea colored swirl in his eye. T'shen was a very tall, very handsome man with a huge long mane of red hair darker than Sega's. He looked between his dragon and she, and said, "you've got what it takes, you may come back to the Flats when we call for the Searched."

Sega nodded, confident that she'd be able to impress and ride. She would make her mother proud. If not on a gold, then any dragon would be great. She found herself walking and just thinking who might pair what, in her embroidery circle. She passed by Aaryea and the furry rider, and listened in.

The furry woman (furry?! What was she!?) came over, graceful and happy looking. "Quisanth says you're good for standing," she said. Her voice was rich, not really high, but so distracted by her appearance were the two that Kaytcha had to wave her hand in front of them to bring home the fact that they'd been Searched.

"I ..." Aaryea stammered, for the first time in her life speechless, "could you please tell me, how you came to be that way?"

Kaytcha gave a little funny start, and then chuckled. "oh - that. I'd almost forgotten. When we switched over, I've changed into this. I used to have just skin."

"Switched over?" Aaryea asked, curious to no end. "How?"

"That's something that you'll learn later. And, if you pair up with a dragon, it'll be even easier to explain. They know already." Kaytcha thumbed (with a furry, padded claw-tipped hand) back at the dragons. "And they can explain it more easily. We've ... well," she leaned in and both Aaryea and Cendar perked up, "we've already switched over, this speech that K'yle's going to give is just to make it official... Didn't you feel anything odd recently?"

Aaryea and Cendar turned to one another, and Aaryea furrowed her brows. Sega looked where she was looking, and sure enough... Aaryea looked as though she were pondering something, about her own self. "I did, I think... I rarely remember my dreams, but I had one really strange one recently, about flying and landing, and how things were the same but they weren't... Is that what this is about?"

Sega thought maybe, wasn't she feeling a little odd the other day? It got very cold and then quite warm all in a minute. In fact, she'd asked her mother about it, but Setiga thought it was just another hot flash...

Cendar looked into the distance, and a strange look came over her face. "Aary, look. Those mountains aren't familiar, at all. They're not covered in snow, they're really green."

Sega darted her gaze up then, and was sure that this was a better place. Green... Trees were everywhere. Not the short, quickly growing things that they knew. But tall, old trees. Almost unheard of!

*** (from the group's search page)***

The large group of gathered Caledruans milled about, surprised at how many there were, and how many of them knew one another - or at least knew someone else in the group. Each had an attachment to the next, they almost could form a chain of familiarity.

When another rider showed up, a day after the trio had Searched, several of the Seached recognized him as a man who had formerly lived there! One of the girls, Janice, bolted to his side when he got off the back of his proud bronze dragon.

"H'ndar!" She cried, laughing and relieved to see him. Every time he would visit, there would be another scar on his skin, and every time, she was eager to locate it.

"It's just Hendar, if you want," the rider said, with an odd smile. "I'm not so fond of people saying it that way any more." He smirked at Janice's odd reaction (she furrowed her eyebrows and went to apologize, but then stopped and swatted him instead).

"But why?" Janice asked. "Why suddenly this odd change? What has really been happening out there?"

Just then, two more riders and dragons arrived, yet more old Caledrus inhabitants who had long since vanished to their own devices. One was riding a dragon whose color shocked a number of the Searched - and a good portion of the onlookers who couldn't be forced to leave. The dragon was a bright shade of red, with paler white markings on it. The rider was a girl who had been well known by the higher status Lordlings - Ezhar the dancer. Her partner, T'nor (who had no such problems with his name being shortened, he still thought it quite an honor) rode a two-toned blue dragon, both clearly from one Weyr by their appearance.

"We will be needing the different dragons to take you all to your destinations," K'yle announced loudly, in his half-squeaky voice. He could sound very serious, when he put his mind to it, but he'd never have the command over people that his father did. "We're going to show you some places that are in need of candidates, and if you think one or another is to your liking, we'll see if you can bond there."

Someone called out, "don't you mean Impress?" But K'yle glared at them.

"No, I mean bond. It's a more broad term. We've found places that aren't all ... well, you'll see. You all will understand best after you get there. And the rest of you," he gazed at the assembled inhabitants who hadn't been Searched, "don't worry. We're all going to explain it soon enough - but you will have to be patient and you will have to trust us."

Another trio of dragons and riders came through the nexus, Betweening was such an old-world term, one of whom had lived at Caledrus as a first-class records keeper, before he was searched. Waadier, now fondly known as D'ier, and his pretty green (what a surprise for people who knew him, huh? NOT!). D'ier and Elkinorith joined the search team on occasion, and he apologized to K'yle for not being there earlier.

"It's all right. It's these two I'm worried about," the Lord Holder's son glanced at his half-sibling Pasha, and Pasha's brother Haze. "Didn't you think there would be enough good candidates here?" He asked them, and both men waved him off with a grin - the same grin that he often had on his face.

They had ridden in on a pair of large dragons, Haze's large bronze Alkalmith, and Pasha's brown Surketh. The dragons moved from their landing spots to an area with bumpy ground that suited them to rest upon, with the others.

Gold, Bronze, two Browns, two Blues, Green, and Red... They lined up like a spectrum of possibilities. Resting and chatting, the dragons seemed to largely ignore the people around them, until K'yle whistled for their attention.

The little booklets that D'ier handed out to the group of Searched folks had shiny pictures on them, of dragons and different weyrs - they could tell that these images were real pictures, not paintings. There was something very surreal about this. Very few people of Caledrus knew about photographs, and most of the ones who did, only knew in theory. They did know that Alabaster had some strange machines that could almost seem to think for themselves. Perhaps these pictures came from them?

"Now, look over everything. There is information about each location's needs and desires," K'yle said, as D'ier finished handing them out. "But I want you all to keep in mind one very important thing. We are *not* going to be fighting Thread any longer."

There was a pause, when everyone put down their pamphlets and stared at him like he was insane. Sega was slightly relieved...

"There are other things on our minds now, as riders. There are threats to our home, but Thread is not among them. However we have learned that those people who were born on our old home," (that elicited a lot of muttering about what in the world he could mean) "tend to bond best to old-world dragons. Dragons who would be best familiar with you. Dragons of the older colors," he tossed his head at the fivesome plus one oddity. "and not ones with the newer breed types. When you get back to Alabaster, you'll see what I mean."

"How much has our home changed?" Demanded someone, "where are we if we aren't on our old home?"

"The world is called Alskyr," said Kaytcha, her gold dragoness tossing her head and reminding people that even though the girl had fur and a tail now - was not human as far as they were concerned - she had still impressed a grand golden dragon like herself. "And it's a very nice place. You will all benefit," she turned to the onlookers who had started to mill about nervously, "because this world is rich in plant life, and our isle has some wonderful people on it that accepted us on it."

"The arrangement was made," K'yle said, "by my father, by T'shen, and by some other people high-up. We knew that if there was an announcement there would be panic, and we wouldn't be able to bring everyone along properly."

Pasha and Haze, standing together with their shoulders bumped, nodded. "And you never noticed, did you?" Pasha asked. He was the stronger telepath of the two, and his lineage (K'yle's side especially) were ones which had helped the most.

"It's not important how long we've been here," said Haze, having heard someone ask that among the Searched, "what is important is that we integrate everyone into our new ways, sooner or later."

"That brings us to the dragons," T'shen said, sweeping past the brothers. The Searched group were apt to stare at him anyway, tall and handsome as he was. Even D'ier (perhaps especially D'ier) gazed at him in wonder. "The dragons who pair off with Caledrus inhabitants will be living with you, here." He swept his hand and suddenly - because they had been inclined to ignore it and nudged telepathically to do so by Engell and his troupe - people noticed that the mountains that had greenery about them, also had ledges, caverns, terraces... Big enough for dragons to roost if they so wished.

"... So you're saying," one of the Searched girls said, "that we will be coming back here, to live, with our dragons."

"That's it in a nutshell."

"Then let's go!" She said, laughing, looking through the pamphlet. Aaryea was grinning like mad, as she looked through her own.

Eller kept coming back to the Blue Sky pages. The dragons were interesting looking. Horns, and two-toned bodies. They looked as though they had wingsails in a contrasting color, that was kind of cool.

Eller noticed that Sega too had found the smart looking Blue Sky dragons pages and wouldn't turn to another. "I think we're going there," he said, and she nodded and grinned.

He brought her over to K'yle and waited until he'd stopped talking to another Holder with all kinds of questions. Why ask why?

"We'd like to go to Blue Sky," Sega said, happily.

"Then Blue Sky it is," K'yle nodded and told them both to get their goods, if they were ready to fly.

More likely, he was biding his time. Because the eggs on the sands were hardening and it would be any day now - aaany day - that they'd hatch.

It was weeks. Sega had to learn how to do hard work, work she'd never been known to do. Mucking dens? Hideous work. Smelly. Taking the laundry to the drudges to clean... heavy! That was nothing compared to the classes and the firestone drills. She discovered only that while the callouses on her own hands grew - she faintly remembered her sewing circle's conversation about riders hands - her desire to see the eggs hatch also rose.

And at last, while there was a tremendous storm outside, they began to do so.

"What perfect timing," she muttered. The other girls couldn't believe it either - they would have to put on their robes and get down to the hatching sands, in the rain?

It was going to be fine. Sega breathed in deeply - the wind brought fresh rain on it and it had no trace of thread or dangers on it. She was glad that today she'd worn her shoes, because the sands were still quite hot.

Everyone who had bets going (including her, because she had money, and nothing else to spend it on) was pleasantly surprised when a bold bronze hatched first. He almost didn't impress first, though, as a green got out (or tried to) shortly after. It wasn't long before several others, blue and green, had hatched and impressed.

The excitement built, Sega of course was looking continually over the eggs and wondering: when will mine hatch? Is that the one?

A stunned gasp went through the whole cavern, when a pair of dragonets broke shell. One was a big black, bigger by far than the other hatchlings. But that wasn't all - because the female who came from her shell nearby had a green body - but golden wingsails and belly scales!

A rare pair like that? The second set of parents (odd that two females would share the sands anyway) were proud of themselves. They'd clearly been responsible for this!

The little green gold walked around the sands, gazing at the girls. But none of them seemed to be the right one, until she reached Sega. She sat down on the sand, and bespoke.

Sega.

Sega dropped to her knees, just as another had done shortly before. She knew why, now. Because there was a feeling inside her head, in her heart, making her whole body tingle. Warm - love, hunger, itchy, ... the feelings of a dragon newly hatched.

And a name.

"Makvoth?" Sega queried, and the dragonet raised her head with a croon.

Yes!

There was no doubt - the dragonet was her bond. Sega was now a dragonrider, and her mother would be so proud to have another in the family after so long!

***

Makvoth tossed her head around, and splashed water up onto the shore. You should come in, it is not as cold as you think it is.

"Of course it's cold!" Sega laughed, "you've got half inch thick hide and - dare I say it - a layer of fat over those bones to keep you warm!"

Offended at the fat remark, the gold-green huffed and fumed, and then made the decision to bring Sega in with her. It wasn't hard - everyone else had their bond in the lake. They might as well be together too!