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Gold Jeuneth's Lifemate
The world of Pern is copyright Anne McCaffrey, 1967
The Dragonriders of Pern is a registered trademark.
A Bitran through and through, Joslyn's grandparents' grandparents were crafters at the crooked northern Hold who found a gambling-supplemented income suited them immensely. From that point forward, Josy's forefathers were destined to be the most underhanded of dealers amongst underhanded dealers.
Add to this the fact that the girl's mother was a Benden greenrider who readily delivered the babe Joslyn back into her father's arms at Bitra Hold, and it's no wonder Josy grew up tomboyish and hearty. Blonde from birth with those big emerald eyes, she never did manage much as far as stature goes - but she had the spite of a dozen Holdbrats, the charm of a half-dozen Harpers, and a fear of manual labor to rival them both.
An only child, Joslyn found playmates rather than siblings to fill her childhood days. Ever a handfull, she found ways to wriggle around her lessons and hide from her chores whenever possible - which just happened to be frequently. Unfortunately, it wound up showing: her grammar was atrocious, her Pernese history was passive at best, and her sewing was worse than terrible... But she was cute, so who cares... right?
This is the sweet way Joslyn's life progressed, as carefree as childhood can get and just about as happy. Her many scrapes, bruises, and the treatments accorded them lent her an aversion to Healers, and her aversion to lessons lent one to Harpers. She visited her mother a few times in the first few Turns, but, for all intents and purposes, Mum was just a pleasant, hazy memory surrounded by dragons that slipped further from the little girl's mind as she grew up.
Other than those early visits to the Weyr, Joslyn never really left the Bitran sweep area - never farther than a half a day's walk, to be sure. It wasn't until her fourteenth Turn, in fact, that she ever got much farther than that.
When her Healer cousin sent word that she wouldn't mind having Joslyn come and stay a season at the Hall, both Josy and her father thought it was one of the best ideas they'd ever heard. She was eager to see the world, and he was eager to send her off someplace else to cause trouble. So, after a few months of saving marks, Josy found herself on the next boat to the Southern Continent. Little did she know...
A few days after her arrival, just after she'd settled in to the Healer Hall - hating herself every moment for the proximity to those dreadful crafters - Joslyn was already teaching the apprentices the tricks of her Bitran trade. Willing to teach just about anyone, she brightened readily at the idea of playing dragonpoker with a real dragonrider, as Southern Weyr's Rose seemed perfectly willing to play along with Josy's game.
The hand never got played, however, as green Ialyth fairly demanded her lifemate's presence. Heading out in tow to view Rose's elaborate dragonpoker deck, Joslyn found herself suddenly under that green dragon's scrutiny. Before she really knew what was upon her, Joslyn was all but whisked away to Southern Weyr to stand for Tiarnath's and Rnayth's clutch, hardening on the Southern Sands.
What followed was, for Joslyn at least, one of the most impossibly trying few weeks of life. Chores, chores, and more chores were handed to the fourteen-Turn-old Josy, and she had to spend more time than she'd ever known trying to evade those candidate tasks. But she made friends, and she enjoyed herself for the most part.
The Hatching came, amid a shortage of glows that left the entire Weyr darkened and the Sands inky black that night. Candidates shuffled in, eggs cracked, and lifemate pairs turned away. Joslyn watched her newly made friends leave the Sands with their new dragonets - Kinoa and Luiseth, Shadara and Saith, Tandrum now T'dru and Duirath, Shasta and Muinyth... dozens of them.
But there was no dragon for Joslyn.
With the last of the eggs now a small pile of shards, Joslyn stood blinking at the rest of her fellows, sans lifemate. Tempted, at first, to console herself with tears, she skirted her way from the Hatching caverns, out to the meadow, and played herself a nice, concillatory hand of solitaire.
Feeling much better about herself, the little girl trundled out and promptly enjoined a position at the Weyr - there was no going back to chilly Bitra for Joslyn. It wasn't long before another former Candidate and once again Steward Lily acquired scrappy Josy as an assistant.
The weyrling dragons grew by leaps and bounds, and the newly made assistant steward found herself actually outranking her weyrling friends - and loving every grinned moment of it. Eventually, of course, the dragonets grew and the weyrlings graduated, as weyrling pairs are wont to do, and the Weyr fell into an easy routine once again.
Somewhere in the midst of it all, Southern Weyr found herself a new Headwoman... who happened to be a man. Cathal was, for all intents and purposes, sunny young Joslyn's direct opposite. Though he too hailed from Bitra Hold, the two had little in common. Cathal was more than five Turns Josy's senior; he was serious and driven, hardworking and dedicated. And he compelled, aggravated, and delighted the bubbly assistant steward.
Whatever relationship might have flourished between the two was, temporarily at least, stiffled when Maristh's and Revarth's clutch was laid and Cathal was made a candidate for it. Joslyn wasn't far behind, this time Searched by J'mis and his bronze Vagranth.
This time, Joslyn knew what she was getting herself into. She had plenty of people lined up to take the chores she skirted, and she had plenty of help with sewing that bothersome robe. In fact, the entire robe found its way mysteriously onto her cot - in the same strange manner as her favorite new marble. Imagine childish Josy's surprise when she discovered that Cathal himself was her benefactor. Indeed, imagine her shock when she realized that all those affections she had for him were reciprocated. Whoa.
Again, though, the romance was set aside as the Hatching fell upon Southern. Egg after egg hatched; Lily Impressed her Tybeth, Moira to Sulisth, Ana and Lecil and Thessa and Edlar and one after another found their lifemates. A large egg cracked, a rosy bronze dragon spilled forth, and, before she knew what was happening, a beaming Josy saw her Cathal become bronze Simath's C'al.
So preoccupied with that pairing was Joslyn that she all but forgot about the breathtakingly dark, dangerously determined gold that had only just recently broken through her own shell. Until that demanding young queen graced Joslyn with the first of many mental caresses and Josy realized her presence - the power of her presence.
Just when Joslyn felt she could bear no more of that impossible heat, she felt the first brush of an unfamiliar mental presence. She looked down to find herself face to face and utterly in love with that cimmerian gold dragonet, lost in the rainbow eyes and the love reflected in them. Without knowing how, Joslyn knew this queen was Jeuneth and she knew Jeuneth would never, ever let Joslyn be lonely again.
<< Please, Joslyn. I've an itch on my shoulder and I need your help! >>
And nothing on Pern could keep Joslyn from handling that itch. Little did she know that it was only the first of thousands - millions, and that the next eighteen months would leave her in the hands of N'all the terror - er, Weyrlingmaster.
But she survived, after more punishments than one little weyrling should be allowed. Long but short were those eighteen months of weyrling training, ending on the night of graduation when Joslyn went from Weyrling to Junior Weyrwoman.
It wasn't long after when the Senior Weyrwoman and Maristh's rider retired, leaving the Weyr to Telinda's capable managing as Tiarnath rose next, amid a hurricane, and ushered in the next Search at Southern Weyr, with Rnayth's K'laarn as the Southern Weyrleader.
The Hatching came during one of the most impossibly hot spells the Weyr had ever seen. So baked were the Southern Sands that the dragons were little more than watery mirages parading up to their lifemates: Katolnar became K'tor with bronze Albanth, C'ley and bronze Sahath, Marila - Shasta's baby sister - and green Breidith, Miranor and blue Xiuth, Nareisa - N'all's younger sister - and Niaeth and so on and so forth.
Honshu's youngest Queen was the next to rise on the Southern Continent - and did that ever scare Joslyn to bits and pieces! Saijith was almost two Turns younger than Jeuneth, but Jeuneth had yet to rise over Southern's skies. Naturally, the junior flight at Honshu had Joslyn take a little stock in her life.
It was during this uncharacteristic period of introspection that Josy realized just how long it had been since she had even seen let alone had any time at all with C'al - who was supposed to be her weyrmate. After a long, quiet afternoon thinking, the goldrider came to the conclusion that she and C'al really are better off as friends, sending the bronzerider a note stating as much.
Strangely enough, the end of her very first "relationship" wasn't particularly troubling. Yes, she was a little heartsick about it for a day or two, but she still had Jeuneth and Southern Weyr and is basically just as bubbly as ever.
Even still, times will change - Rukbat will rise and the moons will set. Much as Joslyn enjoyed that quiet respite, her life settling into an easy pace once again, even this girl with little foresight knew that things couldn't always be so blissfull. The next major upheaval was on its way.
Recently arrived on the Southern Continent, Foloran was a little more Joslyn's type - if such a thing really exists. The son of Istans, he had come to Southern Weyr for a change of pace... and a job. Josy, who found herself greatly liking this strange boy from the tropical north, was compelled to seek a position for him, and eventually the two managed to instill Foloran as the Assistant Steward. And Joslyn kindly taught him everything she knew about how not to work.
When he was promoted to Head Steward, things changed a little. He was working harder; Joslyn was still being lazy; and they both really liked each other. Yet another relationship to place on hold, however, as Jeuneth finally deigned to make her feminine presence known.
Josy must have been proddy when she found herself swept up with Z'ar, once upon a time a kitchen boy at Southern Weyr and now a bronzerider at Honshu. She must have been even more proddy when she fessed this up to Foloran, wound up cursing C'al, and refused to speak to anyone at all in the Weyrhall.
It was then that Jeuneth rose, with Joslyn already upset and the 'hall full of onlookers. A fiery event in true Jeuneth-fashion, Josy literally had to be carried from the Weyrhall over K'tor's shoulder - a favor that later earned him a solid punch in the nose from the little goldrider. When it was all over, Josy awakened to find her good ol' friend Shasta sharing furs and her dragon all cozy with brown Muinyth.
Grumpy and broody, Jeuneth clutched by and by - twenty-nine eggs littering the Sands: Candidates poured in. Among them were Foloran and his own brother Laemir. What those Candidates did amongst themselves was never revealed to the goldrider, who took great care to stay out of their messes and attend Jeuneth.
Finally the Hatching came, and Joslyn found herself sprinting onto the Sands even as Rukbat started to disappear behind the moon. Yes, perverse Jeuneth's eggs would hatch in the midst of an eclipse that left the Sands so dark it's a wonder anyone survived the experience. But survive they did, that Hatching seeing Laemir into L'mir with his bronze Brielth, F'loran and brown Kesath, L'bon and brown Dhanuth, Kayjay and brown Suriath, J'rin and blue Naliath, Kenla and blue Ardanth, T'rrin and blue Cyonth, Jeraria and blue Ziniath, Starr and green Jiazith, Imara and green Yishenth, and nineteen other new weyrling pairs for N'all to teach and torment.
While they trained, Joslyn kept herself at least somewhat busy with Telinda's dragonhealing. Among that decent-sized class were Nareisa, Honshu's Aeriel, and the Weyrhealer Dyani - who wound up Impressed at Honshu Weyr somewhere along the way. Now the weyrlings are trained and graduated, and Joslyn is still trying to pretend to study dragonhealing.
Little of importance has happend since then, save the minor goings on at a constantly buzzing Weyr. F'loran's made wingsecond of Moonsweep, K'tor has managed to instill himself as Weyrsecond (and impregnate a few greenriders on the way...), and Tiarnath has recently risen to confirm K'laarn as Southern's Weyrleader once again. Though he and Telinda seemed to be on the outs, Southern was still the same sunshiney place as ever.
Things continued thusly, with Telinda and K'laarn barely able to tolerate one another's company, until Tiarnath rose a scant handful of months after the Clutch that gave lifemates to D'ryn and brown Blaith, Kinoa's younger brother T'las and blue Nymath, Alianne and green Chaidyth, Aithne and gold Araneth, and K'vay and bronze Tremaith among others. So now K'tor is the new Southern Weyrleader. This, of course, just a few days after Remarra's gold Hannenth rose to be caught by F'loran's Kesath and after... well... Joslyn stormed up to the brownriding Wingsecond to declare that she was pregnant and it was all his fault. The careful ploy to keep their relationship a "secret" had failed and Josy was actually with child. The poor thing.
Nine months passed rather long and dull for the goldrider, who was not even remotely graceful about her pregnancy. Labor was even worse - a half-day ordeal under the attention of Journeyman Healer Justin... And of course the watchful nerves of F'loran, who was threatened more often than either can recall. When it was all over, however, the two greeted their baby daughter happily enough, the new daddy promptly naming her Rosalyn.
