The Dragonriders of Pern® is a trademark, Registered U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, of Anne McCaffrey.

    Here's Pyrene's history in far too much detail (and now illustrated! In parts). For an abridged rundown, go here, but for a log by log account, look here. An OOC history of why she developed as she has (behind the scenes stuff!) is here. Incidentally, none of the quotes on this page change, so don't try.

 I remember trying so hard to figure out how to get her to the weyr, without getting too clichéd and failing miserably by opting to have her run away after being unhappy at her home seahold (yes, Dragonsong always has been one of my favourites). Even then, I never took her seriously hence the seasickness. Those odd names of her family are all taken from places in Cornwall, UK, Kernow being ye olde Cornish word for Cornwall. After all, out of all those original settlers, there must have been one of Cornish blood, and I got such a kick out of picking out the names.

"All the more reason to fly instead of take a ship."
    -S'phen

    Pyrene's history started turns before she was born, when her grandmother, Porthgwarra, was searched by Fort Weyr for the clutch hardening on their sands. She didn't impress, but she did fall in love with another candidate, Camborne, who had impressed blue Redruth of that clutch. As is so often the case, the feelings weren't reciprocated. She had the same stubborn streak that her granddaughter would later exhibit though and so remained at the Weyr to stand for several more clutches, despite being more interested in impressing C'mborne than a dragon. After she had been at the Weyr for two turns, a green rose in a mating flight, and among the unsuccessful chasers was Redruth. She "relieved" C'mborne's "frustrations" which resulted in a pregnancy. Porthgwarra, being holdbred, expected to become his weyrmate. The weyrbred rider, however, acknowledged the unborn child as his and was willing to support her in any way she needed, but saw no reason to continue the relationship further. At this, she took stock of her situation and decided to return home. Soon after, she handfasted and settled down at Fort Seahold where she gave birth to a son, Polperro, later bearing many children by her husband.

    Polperro's origins were never concealed from either him or anybody else, and, perhaps surprisingly, for the most part people accepted this without prejudice. In fact, it was only Polperro who was ashamed of his background. He became a little shy and solitary, uneasy in large crowds and around anything to do with weyrs, so it was only natural for him to become a seacrafter, spending sevendays on end in ships with only those familiar with him and his situation for company. On one of these voyages, he stopped off at Kernow Hold, a tiny seahold on the north coast of the Tillek peninsula. There he met and espoused Treryn, sister of the current holder, Kelynack. In this isolated spot, accessible only by sea, he was willing to stay and raise a family.

    Among the resultant brood was Pyrene, a scrawny child who, as was soon apparent, suffered from seasickness. With no history of such a condition in either family, Polperro became convinced that this was his "weyr blood" showing through (there wasn't much history of intelligence in the families either). Ridiculous as the situation was, it proved a severe handicap, with Pyrene all but unable to leave the hold. Aside from being constantly given all sorts of menial chores within the hold to make up for this deficiency, enough words were let slip by tactless elders to inform her and the other hold children of the adults' theory for her motion sickness. It was irresistible fodder for teasing among friends and siblings, but after being told by an annoyed acquaintance to "Go back to the Weyr where you belong!" once too often, Pyrene impulsively decided to do just that, with the vague, childish idea of impressing a dragon and "showing" them.

    She was barely 12 turns when, before winter's end, she climbed the cliff path and walked to the nearest road, and had neglected to account for Threadfall, distance, route or transport. Fortunately the ever-convenient group of traders picked her up and gave her a lift to High Reaches Weyr, that being nearer than Fort. The one Threadfall she had to endure, in the cramped and pungent confines of a cave en route, along with the sweating and crying beasts of the traders, helped to put pay to her romantic notions of traveling.

"She's a weyrbrat because she doesn't do anything particularly well."
    -Conlan (C'lan)

    Upon arrival at High Reaches, the first thing she realised was just how big dragons are. It's one thing to know something is 20-30 odd metres long, it's quite another to see that much dragon before and over you. Fortunately, a brownrider named S'phen intercepted the half-petrified girl and took her into the dragonfree living caverns. There he assured her that she could stay at the Weyr as long as she wanted and she was soon settled in the nursery as a "weyrbrat". The first few sevendays were not overly pleasant for Pyrene: strangers and strange customs everywhere and dragons lazing about every time she dared to set foot outside, but on the whole people were welcoming to the little girl; a couple of riders went so far as to introduce her to their dragons. She didn't want to admit even to herself that she was afraid of the huge creatures, but only sheer stubbornness was keeping her at the Weyr.

    In the end, it was a rider who forced her to realise that it wasn't necessarily dragons she had to worry about. Crossing the bowl one day, she froze when green Sindiath whuffled idly at her. Sindiath was soon joined by S'phen's Trebinth, and with a dragon on either side, Pyrene didn't dare move until Ethree, a bluerider, came out to the bowl. When appealed to for help, Ethree seemed more amused than anything and went so far as to summon her Wiranth to intimidate the girl even more. Fortunately for Pyrene, while Wiranth was amenable to scaring her to death, Sindiath and Trebinth joined forces to protect her from the bluerider's talk of sacrifice. Once Pyrene recovered from the shock of dragon tails wrapping around her, she figured out that the two dragons were on her side. Ever since this encounter, she has trusted (with judicious respect) all dragons, except for blues, which she has something of a phobia about.

    Her family, meanwhile, were horrified by her choice to stay at the Weyr and sent her several messages pleading with her to come home. She replied that she wasn't happy at home and got the response that she should at least try to see a bit more of Pern before deciding to stay at a weyr. The one trip she made in an unsuccessful attempt to keep them quiet, resulted in the inadvertent impression of a fire lizard, blue Poldhu, at Ista's seahall. Although she privately felt that Pol was worth the ship voyage to Ista and back, she firmly refused to leave the Reaches again, and informed her parents with typical tactlessness that she was happiest at the Weyr. They were none too happy about this, but they didn't want to actually drag her back by force, besides which they had other things to worry about. So they subsided and waited for things to change.

    Things didn't change as far as Pyrene was concerned. She stayed at the Weyr with Poldhu for company and later the adventurous Gunwalloe, another blue fire lizard that she managed to impress. They might have done much for her opinion of blues in general, if Wal and Pol hadn't had such a tendency to get her into trouble (even if she was quite capable of managing that by herself). Particularly with the weyr-nanny, Zirade, who viewed Pyrene as being old enough to be trusted with more than a few chores around the nursery. Pyrene never was exactly reliable, but by now she had settled in at High Reaches and had found her niche so to speak, even if it was only sitting in the living cavern, watching people and causing trouble.

"Wow a relation who doesn't mind me at the Weyr."
    -Pyrene

    Pyrene's family didn't give up: one day, she received a message explaining that an aunt of hers, Raina, who was a drudge at Redsands Hold, was very ill and she should go at once to look after her. Never the most rational of creatures, she panicked, certain that Raina was going to die and they would blame it on her. She ran into S'phen while in this distress and he offered to take her to Redsands on Trebinth. Although worried that her seasickness might apply to dragons as well, she accepted. Fortunately the ride went smoothly and when they landed, among those come to gawk at the dragon was Flarra, a herder apprentice who had once visited High Reaches Weyr and made friends with Pyrene. She had shown them to Raina's room where the drudge was sleeping, when S'phen noticed a similarity between Flarra's belt knife and a ring that Pyrene had been given by Porthgwarra. Pyrene identified it as a family crest, and startled, the two girls realised that they were distant cousins.

    Pyrene was soon back at High Reaches for it turned out that Raina's condition had been greatly exaggerated (her own sensitivity obviously having been inherited straight from her family), but she now knew she could ride a dragon without humiliating herself and on occasion would take the opportunity to visit Flarra at the herder hall. Owing to a plague at the Weyr a few turns previously, several riders were transfers from Ista and frequently revisited their former home. Pyrene was not the only resident to take advantage of this for relief from the cold, especially as winter drew in. The onset of winter also brought news that Treryn was to add to her family yet again. Pyrene immediately grew worried that her parents would use this as another excuse to get her home. However, friends assured her that they saw no reason why she should have to leave, the Weyrleader himself said that he would speak to her parents if needs be.

    So she relaxed and got on with her life and trying to keep warm. While visiting Ista Weyr's beach with some friends, a nearby fire lizard clutch hatched. Barely minutes later, she was the new friend of stealthy, brown Kynance who was less than delighted to find that Pyrene did not live on a warm, sunny beach but in a cold, snowbound weyr. Meanwhile, Wal and Pol, not sharing Pyrene's distrust of blues, were horrified that she'd dared to impress another colour and spent a sevenday or so sulking at the Herder Hall with Flarra. Pyrene persuaded them to come back eventually, but they never did get out of the habit of picking on Ky who was secure in the knowledge that Pyrene liked browns. Pyrene paid them little heed, more interested in the maiden flight of the young queen Rhyath, well aware that she was of an age to be Searched.

    Things, as usual, did not work out as she planned, however. In the spring, Treryn collapsed and her prodigal daughter was obliged to return home. Despite the fears of all the healers, Treryn and baby Treneere did survive, but it was several months before Pyrene could go back to the Weyr. During this time, she was put in charge of her newest sister in another attempt by her parents to forge a bond between her and Kernow Hold. On one level, this worked perfectly. Trenny adored her big sister and the fire lizards, while Pol, Wal and Ky were equally besotted with the gurgling baby (so long as they could escape to play in the sea when she started crying). Pyrene however bore it all with resigned sulkiness, until the day when she finally decided that they could manage without her and sent a message via Gunwalloe to a sweeprider pleading for a lift back to the Weyr. At least this time, she informed her parents of her departure first.

    It did come as something of a shock to find that, in her absence, Rhyath had laid her clutch and several of Pyrene's friends were now candidates, including Zirade and fellow weyrbrats who were younger than herself. No dragon sniffed at Pyrene twice however, and for the first time, she had to admit to herself that just being at the Weyr did not ensure her Impression. She was too proud to let it bother her though; after all, she was growing up and a fourteen turn old girl in a Weyr full of dragonmen has much to occupy her mind besides Impressing. Other things had also happened while she was gone. When the herders visited High Reaches on a runner trail, she was reunited with Flarra who introduced her to her mentor, Damista, who had adopted Flarra as her daughter and was happy to regard Pyrene as a niece.

Uh oh.. /She's/ the nanny? Oh well.. Maybe she's nice?
    -Neola

   Shortly after, the eggs hatched. While Pyrene and the other weyrbrats watched, Zirade Impressed brown Azrieth becoming Rade. Several of her other friends impressed too: Annalee, Areiah, C'lan, they all disappeared off to the weyrling barracks with their new best friends. Busy with weyrling chores as they were, Pyrene saw little of them (although rather more of Annalee's blue Erranth than she perhaps would have liked). She occupied herself with trying to keep the weyrbrats behaving in the hopes that assistant nannies Phaedra and Mirisae would somehow forget to find somebody to take over the now vacant head nanny position.

    They didn't: in due time, Kostya took over the nurseries, and unexpectedly, Pyrene found herself being promoted to assistant nanny. At least now she had a room to herself; she just had to spend her days running around after children who had no respect for her. Even her child-loving lizards had mixed feelings about that. Still, Pyrene lacked the motivation to try and change her life by herself and so for the next two turns she was more or less immured in the nurseries, busily coping with the cycle of riderspawn that passed through those rooms. Around her, things changed: her weyrling-friends graduated, the weyrleadership passed to S'phen, other friends came, went, were promoted and Impressed and her brats got Searched intermittently, but Pyrene's life stayed the same. Nothing happened and she did nothing, although she was happy to take full credit for any impressions from her nurseries, particularly brown ones.

    There was always the hope, however, that perhaps her luck would change and she would be among those standing for the next clutch. By her sixteenth turnday, there was a double clutch on the sands requiring many more candidates than normal, and still she wasn't asked to put on candidate white. Even Pyrene could only carry stubborn hope so far, and so she gave up on her dream to face rather dolefully a lifetime of looking after the weyrchildren, who, quite possibly, weren't exactly keen on the prospect themselves. There was an Impression and promotion for her though: Flarra sent her an egg from her gold's first clutch which hatched bronze Tremayne, and Kostya left her position to be replaced fleetingly by Mirisae, who thought things over and decided that Pyrene should step into the breech.

    Pyrene was stunned rather than pleased at the news, and went to the living caverns with one of the older brats to fortify her nerves with some heavy drinking. Into this scene, crawled Avenlea, the baby daughter of Annalee and S'phen, who had wandered away from her weyr and the nanny in charge of her. Not interested in childcaring that night, Pyrene simply continued to drown her sorrows, only to sober up with considerable speed when the child crawled up to the top of a staircase and fell back down again, injuring herself. Avenlea was rushed to the infirmary, and in due time, Pyrene was forced to explain events to S'phen. Fortunately the Weyrleader was not as upset with her as his dragon, who made his feelings quite clear to the guilt-stricken girl, and he let her remain in charge of the nurseries. Well aware that this was more than she deserved, Pyrene decided that the best way to atone for her mistake was to do her duty as head nanny. Not that she put a huge amount of effort into looking after the kids, she just didn't think of ways to get out of the work as much as she used to. 

    Still, it's easier to be a good head nanny than to be a bad one, and once Pyrene had got into the routine, she was able to manage it competently enough. Besides which, she was finally doing something useful: even if people still paid little attention to her usual complaints about the work, she felt more respectable and she had a nice grapevine of the proverbial little pitchers with big ears at her disposal. One of the less superficial advantages was that with this promotion and her seventeenth turnday, her family at long last seemed to decide she was old enough to ruin her own life and stopped pestering. And then a new (and, if Pyrene has her way, final) lizard was added to her fair of baby-sitters: gold Kernow.

"Right, outside then, now. In front of Trydanth and Sardrinth, and we'll see what they have to say."
    -D'renn

    Five turns after she came to the Weyr, it was hit by an avalanche during a Spring Gather. Pyrene escaped injury herself, but the Senior Weyrwoman Nuff didn't and was forced to step down. The consequent leadership change resulted in Areiah and T'lendel leading the Weyr, but it was their clutch that would have a more direct impact on Pyrene's life, along with that of the youngest queen, Chayath. Among the first Searched for the eggs was another nanny, Tyara, prompting Pyrene to complain that she should have been asked before they robbed her of her assistant. She was deliberately misinterpreted by D'renn who joined forces with Thesy to finally get some revenge on the blue-phobic nanny. The blueriders propelled the reluctant nanny outside for their dragons to play with under the excuse of seeing if she was suitable for Search, and after Sardrinth threw her into a snowpile provided by Trydanth, she was indeed asked to stand for the hatching. Whether this was just part of their idea of a joke, she wasn't certain, but she wasn't about to pass the opportunity up. So at age eighteen, over five turns and countless hatchings since she first came to the Weyr, Pyrene finally put on that white knot and allowed herself to hope for an easy way out of the nurseries again.

    Candidacy wasn't what she had expected: it was an odd thing to be doing the chores herself, instead of teasing others who did them; insomnia set in now that she had to share a room again after four turns on her own; various riders seemed to take great delight in betting on her to Impress a blue; Chayath stole her first attempt at a candidate robe to wrap around one of her eggs; she was reduced to the same rank as many of her brats... and she cheerfully encouraged weyr residents to take up a nannying position to replace herself and Tyara; she was allowed on the sands to look at the eggs and touch them; she formed friendships that she would never have expected.

    Ysbryth's clutch hatched first, and passed in a blur for Pyrene, with none of the dragons so much as looking at her. Still, as the remaining candidates comforted each other, there was always Chayath's clutch, wasn't there? There was indeed. A second time they all trooped out onto the sands, and a second time Pyrene watched friends and enemies Impress until there was just one dragon left on the sands... a blue. She would have been ready to accept her failure there and then, but much to everybody's surprise, the blue started on a straight-line dash for the head nanny. Even more surprisingly, Pyrene's reaction was neither to run nor to hide but to watch this blue hatchling in quiet but unmistakable hope. And yet, at the last minute, he turned, and Sriath instead Impressed the much more appreciative dolphineer apprentice, Tiri. Pyrene made no comment.

    Despite her not Impressing, the world hadn't ended. In fact, anti-climactically, it carried on rather as it had always done: she went back to the nurseries, back to duty rostering, which was now a good deal more complicated owing to the new nannies, one of whom, Perisienne, was pregnant herself. Those of her friends who had been lucky went to the weyrling barracks, the others resumed their previous lives and dreams... it was no different to the hatchings that she hadn't stood for. This, of course, in itself was worrying. If Search had made no difference, what could?

    It was, of course, just possible that it wasn't nannying that was the problem. In her own way, Pyrene rather enjoyed having something to gripe about. Nannying served as a useful scapegoat for everything that was wrong in her life for the time being, until the night when she stalked into the living caverns and found that an old friend, C'lan, had come down for a change of pace and a midnight snack. Naturally, she straightaway resumed her normal practice of teasing him while eating cookies and chatting with the others in the room, but in due course, as happens so often in daily conversation, she determined to teach C'lan to plait his hair himself. This would be easier if he wet it first, and so she took him in all innocence to the baths. And if C'lan seemed a little distracted as they talked over hair-styling, life and such, Pyrene thought nothing of it until she gave him a teasing kiss, more of a peck really. Only he suddenly decided to take her advice and stand up for what he wanted... which apparently was Pyrene. And rather to her surprise, Pyrene wanted C'lan.

    Outlook-on-life-defining events come, like so many things, in threes. First Search, then romance, finally an argument. A quiet break in the living caverns one afternoon escalated into something less relaxing when Thesy, uptight due to the effect of a surplus of proddy greens on Sardrinth, took Pyrene to task for disrespect and the nanny rather proved the bluerider's point by answering back hotly. It wasn't resolved that day, but a second argument later persuaded Pyrene that there should be a difference between her personal and professional conduct, and although it may not be by choice that she was a nanny rather than a dragonrider, she still had an obligation to do the job as best she could. Besides, friends were friends, and that fact wasn't altered if she was respectful to them while on duty.

"Congrats, D'renn!" 
    -Thesy

    Of course, just because Pyrene had finally got to a point where she felt she could be reasonably happy with her life, that didn't mean the odd little hitch to her plans was going to stop happening. Certainly she couldn't have anticipated that Thesy's suspected pregnancy would be that much of a catalyst in her own life. But the bluerider's announcement was the last straw on top of a string of pregnancies either for blueriders or caused by blueriders (and in one case, both), and in a rash fit of temper Pyrene declared that if Thesy were pregnant, she would swap knots with her assistant, Tyara. Lis, pregnant by D'renn and smarting from the snide comments that Pyrene had made about that fact, promptly held her to her word (against Tyara's wishes). Too proud and angry to take back what she had said, Pyrene flung her knot at Tyara upon Catia's confirmation of Thesy's condition, but before she could pin on the assistant knot, Thesy handed her a candidate's one. In a no-win situation anyway, Pyrene took it, opting to do time in the barracks while life sorted itself out. 

    This candidacy proved to be an unexpected break from the stresses of her job. It was rather a relief to be told what to do instead of working it out herself, plus she knew more or less what to expect. Even some of her fellow candidates were familiar, either ones she had stood with before, like Auri, or weyrfolk she had known for turns, like Ashan; as for the others, she could take (undue) pleasure in explaining to them the realities of weyrlife, like with Pia. Not to mention the petty joys of baiting D'renn and the numbers of pregnant women. All in all, candidacy was a lot more relaxing when she wasn't pinning her hopes on Impression, her only worry was that, as the Hatching drew near and this mental vacation came to a close, Tyara was not cracking under the pressure of running the nurseries as she had hoped.

    As it turned out, she had no chance to contest Tyara's knot... Come hatching day as she shuffled her feet, laid bets, glared at blues and waited wistfully for the chance to drink afterwards, the sea-thrown queen of the clutch thrashed her way over to the would-be-again-head nanny and joyously informed her that her name was Cadgwith. So, to a background of mixed reactions from the onlookers, Pyrene found herself following the other newly-Impressed to the weyrling barracks. 

    Weyrlinghood under D'renn's tutelage proved to be more bearable than she had dared hope with Cadgwith's support... what was harder were the comments on Cadge's physical appearance from friends who were all too pleased to get Pyrene back for various slights that she had made on their dragons. But Pyrene had her dragon now, even if she did come in an unexpected colour and this fact fortified her against an awful lot of things... except for the re-emergence of her family.

"You agreed to stand, therefore, you agreed to this."
    -Lylia

    Over the past five turns or so, Pyrene's contact with her family had been limited to sporadic letters, but the news that she had Impressed gold inspired her youngest sister, Treneere, to become closer. Trenny, now seven, couldn't remember the older sister who had briefly looked after her as a baby, all she knew was that Pyrene hadn't stayed at the sea-hold to rot like most of their family, and she too decided to jump ship and head for the Weyr. Pyrene did not receive her with welcome and certainly didn't live up to her high expectations, but her family seemed to be of the opinion that if she was going to set a bad example for her impressionable younger sister, she could also take responsibility for it. Treneere was apparently at Reaches to stay.

    Graduation came in due course, as did being tapped for Esprit wing. It was the other inevitable that did not occur on schedule: Cadgwith's first flight. Apparently perfectly healthy and happy at two and a half turns, the youngest gold of Reaches was a decidedly late bloomer, much to her rider's consternation. Not even Ysbryth's rising to be caught by Rixesith spurred Cadge into fully-fledged adulthood. Pyrene herself was not reticent in accepting the offers of various weyrfolk to share her bed for a night, should she feel like the company (the relationship with C'lan having lapsed upon her Impression), but Cadgwith steadfastly remained celibate despite her rider's varying tactics to get her into 'the mood'. There was, of course, nothing wrong with Cadge; she just did things in her own time. So in due course, she went up, and came down with Benden's visiting bronze Simpsonth, leaving Pyrene in the arms of B'art... twice both her age and her size. B'art unfortunately seemed to take a shine to Pyrene, insisting on sharing the Sands with her as their dragons guarded the resultant clutch of twenty-seven eggs. Cadgwith proved to be protective over her first clutch of eggs, needing Pyrene there as much as possible for moral support. B'art was also always close by, though possibly for different reasons.

    Despite B'art's best efforts, when Pyrene got drunk on her turnday, it wasn't his arms that she ended up in. Instead, F'ish, the beatnik who'd Impressed blue Arielth at the same clutch as Pyrene, swooped her off to his weyr. And promptly fell in love with her afterwards. Pyrene had recently been instrumental in seeing Lis weyrmated to D'renn, and had been wondering whether perhaps she was missing out on something by living alone with Cadge. F'ish was not her idea of a weyrmate however, nor was Creekee the candidate with a crush on her. Fortunately, the latter soon safely removed himself from the picture when he Impressed blue Oreoth. Pyrene was correct in her assumption that B'art would disappear after the eggs hatched, but she hadn't expected him to ask her to weyrmate him first. She refused, and they parted on bad terms. Exhausted both mentally and physically by the demands of the past few months, Pyrene was grateful to retreat to her weyr with only Cadgwith for company.

"Pyrene... you /aren't/, are you? You /can't/ be." It hasn't snowed in Igen yet.
    -Lis

    Her exhaustion didn't disappear as quickly as she'd hoped. That and various other symptoms should have warned her and yet it wasn't until Lis made a flippant comment during a visit that Pyrene remembered she'd not taken her green stuff while Cadgwith had been egg-sitting, but she had slept with F'ish. The connection was made, caused certain hysteria, and a sevenday later, she had the nerve to go to Catia who confirmed it: Pyrene, having vowed never to embrace motherhood, was pregnant. What was more, against all expectation, she chose to keep the baby, heavily influenced by both Cadgwith and F'ish's reactions to the news and, just perhaps, Lis' evident joy in family life. However her own wishes certainly did not lean towards enduring pregnancy and she faced the oncoming months wide-eyed and white-knuckled.

    In fact, she had a reasonably easy pregnancy; it was the birth that caused problems. After some considerable struggle with pushing, it was only realised that the baby was breech after Pyrene had already been ripped inside. At this point, father F'ish fainted, and newly qualified midwife, Kariel, was faced with the unwelcome task of performing surgery on an unwilling goldrider who was far more concerned for her own (and thus her dragon's) safety that the child's, all assisted by greenmother greenrider, Lis. Despite numerous complications, the operation was performed successfully, both mother and new baby daughter surviving to see F'ish come round and proclaim the child's name to be Sephne.

    Pyrene went back to childraising with greater ease than she had feared... but only for six months. As soon as was feasible, she handed Sephne over to a wet-nurse and the nurseries. At last, she was able to enjoy just being with Cadgwith. And yet, somehow that wasn't enough. She still felt as if she was missing out on something by not having a family. At such an opportune moment, her family invited her to visit, so they could see her daughter Sephne. She went with severe apprehensions that she would be in trouble, and returned realising that her family no longer knew her well enough to be angry with her. She had had no great sentiment for her family, and was not about to miss them after an absence of more than ten turns, but it reinforced the point that should she wish for any new family she must find them herself.

    She had her own ideas on potential candidates for new family, but distraction came in the form of Cadgwith's second clutch and potential candidates for that. At least this time, the father was Orbyth and his Zi'n was a huge improvement on B'art, if a little distracted with the two greenriders who were each bearing his child. Pyrene found this clutch a much more pleasant experience and survived it without getting pregnant herself.

    Surely, she had finally come into her own now. She had escaped her family and earned their distant respect. She had Impressed her dragon and attained a rank as high as she had ever childishly dreamed of. True, she'd had a child, but Sephne was now essentially remote from her life, beyond the odd check-up on the girl's progress. Hadn't she finally proved herself? Perhaps in the eyes of some, but Pyrene was vaguely aware of the fact that she had come this far and was still Pyrene. Cadgwith wasn't complaining, but Pyrene was never one to be happy with her situation. Maybe she was aware of the fact that she was not the most popular of the weyrwomen... and Pyrene never did know how to be popular.

    Popularity suddenly seemed to become frighteningly important when Telgar pleaded for a gold to transfer to their gold-lite Weyr. A young gold was the obvious choice, but neither Pyrene nor Shaela wanted to go and in the month of decision making that followed, Pyrene did not act with the strictest dignity. Fortunately, Mitria, one of the older golds, had been having a secret affair with Telgar's Weyrsecond and it was decided that it would be best for all concerned if she went. The betting stakes had been high for Pyrene, and while she was relaxed insofar as she knew her position was no longer under threat, the episode did nothing for her self-esteem.

    As Cadgwith rose for a third time and was caught by Lylia's brown Druseth, Pyrene was concerned with affairs of the heart. Truth be told, she knew who she'd like to weyrmate. Unfortunately, G'deon was already weyrmated and very much in love with Ilare. Pyrene made herself very miserable with telling herself that she'd be much better for him than the brownrider, but it wasn't until G'deon mentioned that Ilare wasn't interested in having children that she seriously thought about actually doing something. One night when Pyrene knew full well that Ilare was out on sweeps, a green rose. Nylanth chased, but didn't catch, and G'deon returned to his weyr alone, save for a skin of wine. Well aware that she had not taken her contraceptive drink lately and that it was a likely time to get pregnant, Pyrene tentatively went to his weyr alone. Any doubts Cadgwith might have had were assuaged by the logic that G'deon wanted someone right now, and that if Pyrene did chance to fall pregnant as a result, then she would be giving G'deon something he wanted without making Ilare suffer. And so the queen remained in approval when Pyrene entered a dark weyr and was mistaken by the drunken Weyrleader for his weyrmate.

G'deon was shocked and repentant afterwards, but it was too late. Pyrene did become pregnant—and so did Ilare, hers by accident rather than design. G'deon received Pyrene's news with polite concern, Ilare's with joy. While the weyrmates managed to talk through what had happened, Pyrene neither had nor deserved such comfort. Even her previously staunch confidante Lis had been shocked at the weyrwoman's actions. Only Cadgwith could provide support without censure over this.  Embarrassed, Pyrene withdrew for a time and concentrated on tedious tasks that kept her out of full view of the Weyr.  When, in due course, a son was born a few days prior to the hatching of Cadgwith's and Druseth's clutch, she discreetly named him Pidgery, although G'deon was happy to acknowledge the child as his own and have a hand in his upbringing.  More surprisingly, Pyrene was equally doting upon her second child, unconsciously trying to make up for the circumstances of his conception.

In the following few turns, the events that overtook the Weyr were more distracting than Pyrene's misdirections of her life.  Fireballs fell with Thread one day, killing and seriously wounding many riders.  These heralded the arrival of an asteroid which fortunately hit ocean but whose impact shook the foundations of the Weyr causing a mudslide in the bowl a month later.  Between this series of disasters and her son, Pyrene was kept too occupied for introspection and worries about her own life.  Still, time passes, and children grow to a point where they no longer want so much care.

When Tiareth clutched another queen, Pyrene took some satisfaction in finally having a weyrwoman in Esprit more junior than she was.  However, then something happened that had not been expected for another twenty turns.  Weyrwoman Areiah became dangerously ill, and at the recommendation of the healers, retired from her position as Senior.  Cadgwith, Chayath and Nissionath, only just graduated from weyrlinghood, could all be expected to rise within the next few months.  Pyrene was faced with the un-nerving prospect of becoming Senior Weyrwoman herself, seeing Shaela, six months her junior with an according rivalry between them, take the knot, or for the role to fall to Vaeli, barely out of her teens—accompanied by the knowledge that should one of the others catch, it was very unlikely that she would have another chance at becoming senior.  It cannot be said that Pyrene did not feel some sense of relief when Cadgwith rose first.  She was caught by Sidramuntalath, the dragon of Sii'kyn who had been the most recent Weyrleader to Areiah.

Weyrwomanhood was not without its setbacks.  While Pyrene was capable of organising herself and copious amounts of hidework—and even of making sensible decisions, she was not always sufficiently thoughtful of the feelings of others and frequently set things in motion before they should have been.  Also, her old prejudice of blues came back to haunt her when she had a hand in the dismissal of a blueriding assistant weyrlingmaster.  There was something of a subdued rebellion as false gossip flew through the wings that all blueriders in positions of authority would be demoted.

Such things paled in sight of what happened shortly before she turned thirty-six.  Two turns prior to her arrival at High Reaches, a plague had stricken the area, devastating the Weyr.  During the commotion, the Weyrleader and Weyrwoman had disappeared between with an entire wing of dragons.  It could only be assumed that they had timed it, but nobody ever knew what became of them.  Now, twenty-six turns later, Cloudburst Wing re-emerged above High Reaches, asking for dragons to return with them to their own time to bring the Weyr up to strength for Fall.  Pyrene and Sii'kyn were obliged to inform them that the disaster had long since been averted when all the weyrs of Pern had come together to support High Reaches' need but that Cloudburst Wing itself had never returned.  The present day Weyr then had the headache of figuring out what to do with the riders.

Last updated December 23rd, 2003

Please note! The image of the lizard that I used in the title is copyright Kelly Matten, and was taken from her Pyrene and fire lizards picture.  For the other illustrations click on them to be taken to more information on the gallery page.