"There's dust in your eyes, you're seeing shit." Sibar stopped tilling dirt and looked up, wiping sweat from his brow. The midday sun beat down an inferno over the little farm, withering the last grey stalks of last harvest's wheat. He glowered at Biacha, then followed her gaze east.
There was a dragon. Big and brown as a boulder.
"Huh." Sibar frowned. "Haven't seen a dragon here since..."
"Since ever," Biacha finished for him. "Dragon riders don't come up here except to fight off thread and we haven't had thread in weeks. Maybe he's lost."
"How d'you know it's a he?"
"A brown dragon?" Biacha elbowed him hard in the ribs. "Probably a he."
Sibar grunted and rubbed his side where a bruise was certain to form. Biacha didn't hold her punches and right now she wasn't bothering to hold her hoe either. She dropped her tool and took off toward the dragon.
"I don't even see a rider!" Sibar snarked and raced after her.
If it had been a bigger farm or a more important season they would have been stopped and chastised for running away from chores, but it was just the two of them breaking soil and clearing away the dead leavings of the old harvest. No one, not even their parents, bothered to keep an eye on 'em. If it was important, all the cothold children would be out helping and a fair few of the adults too. If Sibar and Biacha were left alone deliberately everyone knew they'd shirk their duties at the first sign of fun.
Or trouble.
The dragon, for his part, hadn't come any closer. He rustled his wings against his side and regarded the oncoming onslaught of teenagers with a cocked head and whirling blue eyes. Not upset by their presence, then.
"What's he here for?" Biacha gasped, winded. She stopped a few yards from the brown and gripped her knees, catching her breath with noisy lungfuls of air. There was dust here, billowing up in great clouds, worse while they ran. Not good for the lungs.
"I dunno, looking for lost herdbeasts to gobble up?" Sibar laughed, but it could very well be true. It didn't make much sense for a rider to get lost when their dragon go could between, but maybe they were turned around or something. Just needed directions.
Or an impromptu tithe to feed a hungry beast.
The dragon didn't seem ravenous, but it also didn't seem to have a rider.
"That doesn't work, does it?" Biacha lowered her voice to a harsh whisper. "Dragon's gotta bond, don't they?"
"How would I know?" Sibar snorted. "I'm a dragon expert now, huh?"
He figured she was right, though. Sibar's meager knowledge of dragon riders insinuated they needed a bond or they went and betweened themselves for good. Horrible way to live, he thought. Always relying on someone else to keep you alive. It was terrifying. Humans might need to rely on parents or the like when they're freshly 'hatched', but at least that job could be picked up by anyone. Sibar's father was out of the picture the moment he was born, probably even before that. Sibar's whole cothold took part in raising all the kids. Imagine his poor mum if she was stuck mind-linked to Sibar forever!
"What is that?" Biacha stumbled into Sibar, elbows flailing.
"What's what?" Sibar growled back, shouldering her until she was upright again.
Her brown skin took on a pallid hue, pupils blown wide. She raised a hand and pointed.
Sibar followed her finger.
What he saw was so unlike anything he'd ever seen before he would have thought himself dreaming if it weren't for the fresh calluses under his fingers and the dirt-sweat stench permeating from him. Who dreamed about being sweaty and exhausted?
The... thing... watched them, blinking slowly and twitching its long, tufted tail. It was some kind of dog maybe, Sibar thought, or a cat. Except it had wings like a bird and two tails (not just a split one, like dragons did). It was purple and spotted like the giant felines in the east, with long rabbity ears and large yellowy eyes. It wasn't much bigger than the tabby mousers that slunk around the cothold.
It swiveled its gaze to the dragon and said in a bright, clear voice: "These ones?"
"Shards and shells," Biacha cursed, scrambling away. "What is it?"
Sibar swore too, just as loud, but less polite. Fear prickled the back of his neck but he chided himself for it. The thing was tiny? What could it possibly do to them?
The dragon was a different story. It lowered its head to the cattish creature and snorted hot breath that ruffled the cat's wings.
"Oh, of course!" the cat thing laughed and pawed its muzzle. It turned from the dragon, popped up on its broad feet, and stalked toward Sibar and Biacha without a by-your-leave.
"Get back!" Biacha shouted, holding up her fists.
Sibar grabbed the nearest stick of the ground and brandished it. "We know how to fight!"
They knew how to wrestle, anyway. Sibar had never tried to fight a cat but he'd seen the nasty scratches and red, swollen infection from some of the kids who thought it funny to tug cat tails. Sibar would rather not come to blows with the little creature but he had no idea what it could do. Animals - apart from dragons - couldn't talk. And even dragons didn't talk out loud!
"There's no need for that!" the thing squawked. "I'm not here to hurt anyone and neither is Oyneth! I'm searching."
"Searching for what?" Sibar asked, lowering his stick an imperceptible amount. His brow furrowed hot and tight.
"Are you a search rider?" Biacha reared back, grimacing with confusion.
"I am!" said the thing "My name is Deisha and I'm a rukel, from Darkling Dawn, which is sort of like your Pern, but not really. Not any more."
"Not Pern?" Sibar lowered the stick entirely. "What do you mean not Pern?"
"It's from offworld!" Biacha exclaimed, excitement erasing her trepidation. She whirled to Sibar and gripped his arms, grinning broad enough to split her face. "Y'know, like Ellalah was talking about? Other places with other dragons? That makes sense, doesn't it?"
"She was talking wherryshit!" Sibar shrugged away from her. "Whoever heard of-"
He cut himself off and regarded the thi- the rukel. Sibar hadn't left his cothold and he didn't know much about Pern outside of farming and the stories his mother told him. // But this thing definitely didn't look like it belonged on Pern and on closer inspection there was something a little different about the dragon, too.
"Alright," said Sibar, lowering his stick but regarding the rukel with squinted, suspicious eyes. "Let's say you are from somewhere else and you are a search rider."
"I am," said Deisha," I am."
"Why are you searching here in this know nothing cothold? There's nobody here!"
"There's us," Biacha chided with a snort.
"And we're nobody!" Sibar grouched, flailing his now empty hands wide. "Maybe we'd be searched by some regular dragon looking for some strong guys to fill their wings-"
At this, both Sibar and Biacha took a moment to flex, flashing grins. Deisha laughed at their antics.
Sibar lowered his hands again. "But we're not fancy enough for some other world."
"Plain as a pair of potato sacks," Biacha agreed with a sharp nod.
"Well Oyneth thinks there's something right about you two and the dragon is never wrong." Deisha stared up at his bond and the dragon lowered its massive head to nuzzle the tiny creature. He turned his jewel-toned eyes on Sibar and Biacha, piercing and steady. "We'd like you very much to come along with us."
Sibar squirmed, scuffing the dirt. "Well... Alright."
"Can't argue with a dragon," said Biacha, nudging Sibar roughly with one shoulder. "We gotta tell our parents, though."
"Oh, of course!" said Deisha. "It's probably best if we stay out here. Oyneth doesn't want us to cause a fuss."
"Imagine Rubar's face if he sees a little creature like that!" Biacha grinned, nudging Sibar with a rough elbow.
"He'd lose his head," Sibar laughed.
This wasn't at all how he expected his day to go, but stars guide him, he was going off world and he was going to try his darndest to impress a dragon.
But first he had to face his mother.