Arawn Weyr - Noncanon Pern [IF]

Site Name : Arawn Weyr
Website : http://z13.invisionfree.com/Arawn_Weyr
Server : Invisionfree
Run By : Broken Song
Status : Newly Re-opened

History

It was the beginning of the first pass, and dragonriders had just begun taking to the sky in defense of their home, but before too long, many realized that the lush south was simply too vast and too overgrown to protect properly, and the dragonriders and holders made the decision to leave their heated homes and move North... And many did, trading their wooden houses and their vast information for cold stone caverns and the loss of said information, but one small group broke away... Headed by twin Queens, Havareth and Zujath, a group of one hundred dragons and their riders set up an encampment in a snowy mountain territory on the previously uncharted western continent. While it was a hard life, and took much out of the riders, food was plentiful enough and life was quite good for them, Thread falling more rarely. Two holds sprang up quickly, Konta and Arawn Hold, and the weyr was soon named Arawn, the names of the riders of Havareth and Zujath combined.

Three turns passed quickly, and the numbers increased from only one hundred pairs to over three hundred, though candidates were increasingly hard to find, and many of the holders began to dislike their dragonriding 'overlords', Konta especially, and said hold began to hide away some of their eligible children, while Arawn Hold was a much more accommodating. That is, until a sudden illness began wiping out flitters all across the large island, literally making them fall from the sky on their appointed errands. The only sign was a slight loss of color, then a loss of appetite, and finally the flitter's heart simply stopped. Just as a third Hold was rising from the snowy high mountains and coming to make a name for itself, a rash of deaths swooped down, and within the first two weeks of the first firelizard death, over one hundred flitters had died, and soon the illness jumped to the few whers that had made the transition, wiping them out even more quickly than it had the flitters.

And then, what everyone had been expecting and dreading came to pass. With its fuel burning down, the virus made the jump from wher... To dragon, where it would soon come to be known as Dragon's Bane. The smaller the dragon, the more likely they were to die, and within the first few months every single green and blue were gone, and half the browns. Thread fell and without the grace and agility of their smaller brethren, as well as the numbers, the three Holds were left to nearly fend for themselves, two rather large groups splintering off and joining with the few Holdless that existed, one group fleeing to the plains and becoming Raiders, constantly hounding the holds and weyr, and the second to the sea, becoming quite literally Pirates. In an effort to stem complete chaos, the last of the original scientists did the best he could to create a new beast, using vials of wher blood and several canines to act as carriers. The first few experiments were deemed complete failures, twisting the dogs from the inside out, or killing them days after the genes were introduced.

Nearly a turn later, practically all the dragons were gone from the skies and weyrs, but with that horrible twist of fate came a slight glimmer of hope.. The first 'litter' of wherhounds were finally born, and though there were fumbles, eventually seven of the creatures bonded to humans, surpassing all previous expectations as the proved more intelligent than either whers or canines, easily capable of speech, nearly as smart as dragons. Four went wild, after showing that they did not necessarily need to bond, but they would still protect and occasionally come in contact with humans, as long as they were left to go their own way and not hunted or harmed.

But on the heels of this great discovery came a great tragedy. The sister Queens who had given birth to the weyr would, in the end, be the death of each other when they Rose together, one triggering the other's Flight until they flew upwards in a screaming rush, bits of gold and ichor flying as claws tore into each other. Several males were injured before the pair could be dragged apart, Brown Tuth forcing a Catch on Gold Havareth, the far more grievously injured of the pair, while Zujath went on to be Flown by Bronze Letherenth. Day by day dragon's died, until it was down to twenty, then ten, then five... Though desperately needed, the virus mutated too quickly for any hope at catching it, and it was soon known that if there was any chance at all to stop the disease, all dragons would have to die... Finally it was down to Havareth and Zujath. The pair's enmity was unmistakable, even as Havareth quickly lost strength, and though she made it to her Clutching day, squeezing out sixteen eggs, before her injuries and the weight of her illness drained her, unable to even summon the energy to Between. Eleven of the eggs were obviously dead, their shapes deformed and somewhat crushed. She died that night, just before Zujath took to the sands, amidst the keens and cries for their other Queen.

Gold Zujath, somewhat less injured than her sister, was obviously struggling as well as she laid twenty four eggs, including two Queens, but there was already a plan put in place. Looking at her eggs, Zujath looked at her rider once more, gave a croon, and left, Betweening away as well, never to return. Removing herself from the equation, the last dragon on the western continent, would also remove the chance that the virus would be passed on, thus ensuring that at least some of her children would live. Her rider very nearly went insane, but she knew her duty, and remained, a vigilant wraith over the sands and the nineteen healthy eggs that remained after those considered 'dead' had been moved aside, no one able to destroy them, or take them Between as was proper. With the wherhounds growing and getting ready to prove if they are fertile or not, and the eggs getting set to Hatch, with raiders on their doorstep and pirates at the hold's walls, it will take nearly a miracle to get this weyr back on track and keeping their people safe.