The Weyrwoman Second, Milonna, had gotten used to her duties as well as improving her handwriting. She had been a gold-rider for six years now, and though their Weyrwoman's queen showed no signs of really tiring (and Kira and her husband didn't either, everyone swore they might have another child on the way, and they must have been in their 60s by now!) it was clearly time that Reginath claimed her right to breed.

The copper-tinted color of her sparkling hide showed everyone that she was ready. The paler sunlight golden shade of yellow on her wings and forelimbs glowed like the stars themselves. Milonna had waited patiently for days, now, wondering when the time would spring upon them. Would she be ready? Well, she knew one thing: Z'an would be her partner no matter which bronze won the flight.

It will be Torsyth, Milonna thought, it will be him because they are so right for one another. Milonna's head swam a bit, her vision blurred and then became very clear suddenly.

She didn't dare stand up, for fear of toppling over. "Oh ... well. This is it," she said to no one in particular, though there were several others in the office - Kira and Aniz and several apprentices. They watched her as she wobbled out of the room, into the hall, and over to the nearest ledge.

Kira and Aniz exchanged a glance, Aniz's a little worried.

"You don't think she's going now?" Aniz whispered, and Kira nodded slowly. Aniz bit her thick lip, "that isn't good, at all."

One of the younger apprentices whispered to her companion, who whispered back: Sayaith, Aniz's gold, was also glowing and proddy. How they'd tolerated each other - the two golds - for so long in that condition, that was the mystery.

Aniz followed on after Milonna, heard the others in the room shuffling papers and preparing to send dragons away.

Reginath stood down by the lower launch flats, sunning herself in the noonday light. She looked spectacular, really, like molten metal.

Up on the fire-heights, Aniz's mind and eyes were drawn. There, her own shining bright gold, a good bit larger than the older dragoness, stood gazing down over the cliffside Weyr.

To be fair, Sayaith had flown once before, producing a small clutch with one of the bigger, experienced browns from the Weyrleader's fighting wing. She knew the routine, where Reginath had grown more slowly and was still only sure of her own desires. Aniz could feel the heat of her dragon's needs as well, now, and suddenly - anger.

"Milonna, she's got to--" Aniz started to say, but the dragons had already started screaming at each other both in mind and voice.

Milonna clutched her head, "I -- how could I let this happen, Reginath, please you have to go!"

I will not 'go' anywhere, this is my flight! I am ready!

"But so is Sayaith! And she's bigger and stronger than you are!" Milonna pleaded.

Aniz worried, quite hard, that with her memory, this might well turn out to be the worst day in her whole life. She knew so many things could go wrong. Queens had battled almost to the death, losing their chances at flight even while they were desperate to fly.

And yet... After the initial assessment of anger, of territory, and stirring of pretty much every green and younger gold in the Weyr to flight, Sayaith sat on her haunches and glared down from the fireheights.

Milonna glanced around, hazel eyes wide, sure that Sayaith would come diving down toward her precious Reginath for a battle of claws and fangs. But that moment did not come, and instead she realized with a start that the bigger gold was waiting for Reginath to finish.

More subdued, Milonna hissed in her mind at Reginath, blood your kills, my one. Blood them, drink your fill but don't weigh yourself down. Look at your suitors! They are beautiful!

...She wasn't at all sure that she'd thought that last part herself, or more probably Reginath did. She didn't notice when the menfolk began arriving: Z'an was given a wide berth by the other riders, not only because they knew he and Milonna were partners, but because he was quite a lot taller than most of them, and would easily be able to smack many of them silly.

The handsome now-bearded rider came up to his lover, and quietly urged her to head to their shared weyr. Their dragons had a pair of caverns and the humans shared a room that joined them. No one would bother them there, but Kira sent along a servant to provide them with foods and wine, and make sure that no one tried bothering them.

There were some very handsome men left over, Aniz grinned to herself. She realized that her dragon was almost tapping into her own mind and imagination. If the dragons down there followed Reginath and didn't win, they would be all worn out by her anyway.

And that would leave the very finest for her, Sayaith gave a little trumpet from above. After all if they would be able to match her strength after their first try? Oh yes. Oh. Yes.

Sayaith shifted her weight and watched, keeping her desire in check, while Aniz scoped out the bronzes who came to the edges of their weyrs. There was Torsyth, brother of Sayaith - and their sibling as well, paler bronze Akitoth. Akitoth had put in a good showing when Sayaith flew before, but they were both young - both outwitted and outflown by that brown Jelajhath.

Somewhere down below, Aniz heard the Weyrleader S'xon yelling at Bhavyatath - no he was not going to try for two golds this day, not even one. The massive bronze took to the sky, startling most of the others, and vanished between in favor of the sunny beach he liked to travel to.

"Feh, least he could have done is take me with him," S'xon said, and Kira's bright laughter could be heard - quite shortly she urged queen Nozomith to fly them both to where Bhav went. They'd hear about the flight later. Plus they knew that Aniz would still be able to recall all of this - though a little biased - enough to write everything down later.

Yes, thanks, Aniz chuckled to herself. Still, the bronzes collected down on their ledges. Some flights, the queen would head over land, making it all but impossible to view the flight itself without climbing to the fire heights and turning your back on the sea. This time, obviously, it was to the sea where Reginath would be headed.

Oh how that would give the townsfolk below in the Hold a thrill! The only dragon that Aniz didn't see outright was Shyveth, but that was because he and his rider were on the night-watch. If they ever got out of bed this early it was a special day indeed.

Aniz then felt the presence of several riders behind her. She turned and with one raised eyebrow looked over all of them too.

Reginath watched as several herdbeasts were let out of their pens, they would provide a great feast later in the day of course - provided she did as instructed and only pulled the blood from their necks. She took one, snapped its neck with a flicker of her head, and drained it as though she'd been deprived for days. Milonna felt that hunger, deep inside her - but with Z'an by her side in their weyr, she was far more confident and sure. She sent again, blood only, and Reginath obeyed. The copper-gold took two more, and gazed up at the sky. No clouds, no haze, it was a good day to fly.

It was a good day to outpace every one of those burly bronzes. She wasn't as big as Sayaith, that was true. But she was fast. She was like a fish in a stream, or by the prow of a ship, darting in the air as they would in the depths.

She shook off her thirst, and erupted into the air.

Aniz noted well that the bronzes and couple of browns who shot after her immediately were the younger ones. Not one of the more experienced bronzes lifted a wing until they saw which direction Reginath was headed.

"Over the sea," one of the men cheered them on, "what a sight! Like two suns in the sky!"

And indeed they were. The flight soon blotted out the sun itself, the bronzes finally all taking wing and trumpeting their worth. Reginath would have nothing of it. She wanted only one of them, anyway, and he would win. Where was Torsyth anyway?

He was back behind Lorash and Vneth?! Now, it was one thing to be behind the healer's dragon, but that foreign-named one? (Not like Reginath wasn't odd herself, in color- Lorash took his ration of crap for having a 'strange' name.) In the time it took Reginath to spot him, she found herself surrounded by males!

Oh no- that wouldn't do at all. She screamed harshly, lashed her tail at them, and most cleared off. Vesulth, the search dragon, took the brunt of that swipe across his neck, twisted his wings into Uuvinth's, and they fell off the chase immediately.

This time, the brown Jelajhath kept pace with the queen only a short time before the bronzes nudged him out of the running. Another two browns, Pruppath and Kjilbith, lagged behind for a while, and then realized that they too were not quite worthy of this queen's flight.

While Reginath spun and soared, spotting weaknesses in the ranks behind her and shrilly calling them out for it, Milonna lounged in her lover's arms, secure. Happy - this was how it should be. And, with the example of Kira and S'xon to guide them, Milonna and Z'an knew they had a long and prosperous life ahead. Would they inherit this Weyr? Or would it go directly to one of the Weyrleaders children? Well, who knew. At the moment, they didn't care. Z'an knew that his bronze had strong wings, and a singleminded need to find his mate. He swerved around Bekth, and all but clawed his way over the sleek Gormalth. Gormalth shrieked and dove, but didn't stop in his pursuit.

Reginath shot up into the sun, cresting almost equal to where Sayaith sat on the heights. Far down below, the sea Hold that provided Dragonhope directly had hundreds of gawking viewers now.

Through her dragon's ears, Milonna could almost hear their calls, cheering and hooting, amazed gasps when the coppery-gold queen skimmed over their homes! Milonna laughed, gasped, and laughed again when Master Miner S'vax's Horuth almost caught her but then very nearly took out the mast of a sailing ship and dove straight into the water!

Some of the bronzes realized that they were fighting a losing battle: not with other bronzes, but with the gold's desires. The elder bronzes, though they were fully capable of catching Reginath, knew that she would fight them the whole way. There wasn't a day that went by without her proclaiming that her bronze mate was the finest in the Weyr, that her bronze was the best hunter or the best fighter. Thus: they'd almost become used to thinking of Reginath and Torsyth as one dragon.

Above, in the Weyr, the men were thinning out, one by one - knowing that some of them would try a little harder when Aniz's gold chose to fly. Perhaps they'd be back. When at last Torsyth matched pace with his one true love over the icy sea, they swept up into the air farther and farther, so by the time they were finished they would cruise to an easy landing on their own weyr ledges, where their riders awaited.

It didn't take long to realize that Sayaith was ready now. Aniz didn't stop the other handful of men from standing near her, in fact, she rather relished it. She knew she was a pretty woman, but she was a Master Scribe, the Weyrscribe, and was for some reason unapproachable for many of the riders. Even these bold bronze riders, some were too shy around her to ask for a dance or to share a cup of klah.

Aniz forced her mind toward her dragon, as Sayaith eyed the other herdbeasts that Reginath hadn't taken down. Blood them, blood them only!

I know, I know, I knooooowwwww Sayaith's creeling call shook the Weyr again, as she dove from her high perch down to the area where the Weyr's few live beasts were brought to slaughter. She did the job well, taking down three of them in one huge pounce, and tearing into their bellies to almost bathe in their blood.

The Hold would be sharing some of that meat, there was now far too much of it for just the weyr's kitchen to handle this day. But moving it would have to wait - there were no greens around (at least, none that could fly), and everyone else was too busy watching the second flight!

Sayaith had been correct in assuming that the 'best' of the bronzes would not be fully worn out from their flight with the smaller queen. Some of the other browns looked back into the sky, following the circling form of the brilliant, large queen. But not this time either, for them. She had bided her time well, standing on that ledge and almost fueling herself with the sun's light.

Aniz knew tricks from old record-books and stories told by Kira and some of the other Weyrwomen who visited their Weyr. Those tricks she relayed to her dragon, who tucked them away and would access them as needed. Oh - there was one, Akitoth's attempt was too early in the flight, so she decided to play with him. He would have been a good match - if he hadn't been Sayaith's brother - and Sayaith treated both Torsyth and Akitoth as pesky younger siblings, and not as potential mates.

So Sayaith slowed in her sinuous flight, long enough for him to almost nip her tail tip with his teeth. Then she dove abruptly, smacking the bottom of his jaw with her blunt tail, and spiraled under him toward the other bronzes. He couldn't follow without endangering his wings... or his pride.

The search-dragon Rath actually put in a good try when Sayaith flew by, clipping onto her shoulder and taking them both by surprise as his wings filled with a gust and stalled them in mid air. He was used to doing that move to fight Thread, not to catch a female, so it was as startling to him as it was to anyone else.

But she recovered quickly, that was something Aniz had to tuck away herself: that was one fast bronze! Sayaith took advantage of the stalled male to slow her fall, and then shook him off as she opened her huge wings once more. Aniz listened to the breathing of the men around her, closed her eyes, and let Sayaith have her way.

They smelled of riding leathers and klah, it was still reasonably early in the day after all and their shifts had brought some out of bed for this flight. In the end though, it was down to two sleek bronzes: Brith and Jiioth. They were both about the same size, though Jiioth's wings were wider, and Brith's length was more obvious. However, Jiioth was older and more experienced - and wilder by far than the mottled-hided Brith.

Their riders, Ei'osh and B'en, exchanged confident looks, their minds busy with whether they should dive or rise, turn or stall. By now, Sayaith was begining to tire of this all, and wanted to be satisfied by the best. She gave one last burst of energetic flapping, which brought her to an apex hundreds of spans above the Heights. It was Jiioth who caught her there, willing to go at breakneck-speeds and forego any thought of his own safety.

It was that factor that always made his rider Ei'osh dizzy with fear, why he was the best harness-maker in the Weyr. But thankfully, he could also feel far more than just his dragon's mind. He possibly had an advantage, and as B'en left the ledge to the winner, Ei'osh muttered how strange it was to feel the defeats of so many but the valuable victory of these two.

"You can hear dragons?" Aniz said, dreamily, "that's very rare in men, I think... very... rare..." They fell into each other's embrace as Sayaith and Jiioth completed their own tumble from the skies.