Author's Note

I do not own the Dragonriders of Pern or any related content. All rights belong to their rightful owners. There will be a longer note at the bottom.

Senior Weyrwoman Jalenna stood on the sands and looked over her dragon's most recent clutch of seventy one eggs. Her dragon, Nareth, was known for her large clutches, but this was unprecendented. Jalenna had never known such a large clutch, and, asking around the other Weyrs, neither had they. It was the largest clutch in living memory. Sirice, the Weyrwoman at Benden, had suggested it might be the biggest clutch in history. Jalenna planned to dust off the records to research that. She wondered if the size had something to do with the number of dragons and riders who had died of the fever sickness in the last six months and Nareth was trying to make up the numbers.

Her gaze roamed over the clutch once more.

It worried her more than it should.

There were two Queen eggs, set slightly apart from the others atop their own plinth of sand. That was rare, exceedingly rare, but there were stories of it happening a few times in history. Jalenna herself could only remember one other occasion, back before she had even impressed, when her mother, then the Senior-Weyrwoman, took her to the Hatching at Benden. It had ended in tragedy, with the two gold hatchlings seeing each other as competition and fighting. Two candidates were killed, one was seriously injured, the smaller hatchling died of her injuries and the bigger one's impression had been… less than stable, with dragon and rider dying very young.

Jalenna wet her lips. Her own daughter was one of the candidates for this clutch. She couldn't let that happen again.

But then there were the other… oddities.

There was a third egg with a sort of gold sheen to its shell, especially when the light hit it, but it was nowhere near as bright as its sisters, who had been placed up high for show and shone in the light. Nareth had left it with the other eggs of the clutch, and it was amongst the smallest. There were theories popping up already, after only one day, and a betting pool had already started as to whether it was a normal egg, a Sport, a dud, or a funny looking Queen egg. If it was the last, they would be making history. Three Queens in one clutch would be unprecendented.

There was a massive egg, bigger even than any Queen egg Jalenna had ever known, but with a plain, mottled shell. Many riders were speculating it was simply a very big bronze. There was another large one as well, roughly the same size as the smaller of the two full sized Queen eggs and a little smaller than the biggest. There was money on that one being a bronze too.

There was one of the medium sized eggs that had a funny bluish colour to its shall others that Nareth had carefully isolated a little from the rest of the clutch and glared at every so often. Jalenna wondered if it was a dud; her dragon often treated them like that.

There were five slightly maller than average eggs, which, in a clutch this size, was perhaps to be expected.

There were also two much too small eggs, half the size than even the smallest of the others, which Nareth had contemptuously shoved over to the side of the sands with a humph. Small eggs were no worry; small eggs happened. They probably wouldn't hatch.

K'res, her Weyrmate and the Weyrleader, strode out onto the sands to join her.

"What do we have?" she asked.

"Eleven boys and three girls."

Jalenna sighed heavily.

"But I've sent R'lon and J'tith out to visit some of the ones that went home after Malieth's clutch. Some of them wanted to stand again but were needed to help their families. And S'mal says once the clutch at Igen hatches in a couple of weeks he'll ask the disappointed candidates if they want to stand here afterwards."

"How many will that give?"

"If we assume about half say yes, roughly fifteen or so. And they're all boys; Igen doesn't put girls to green."

Jalenna nodded thoughtfully. "We need at least a hundred. A hundred and fifty if the hatchlings are to have a good chance."

"I'm arranging Search as we talk."

Jalenna lay her head on his shoulder and smiled out across the sands.

Author's Note

This fic does have a content warning for being a high T at times, the occasional use of swear words and one mating flight scene.

As with all my fanfiction, this was started as light hearted stress relief to poke some fun at nothing in particular. It kinda took on a life of it's own though, and there are some much more serious moments. It even has something resembling *le gasp* plot! (which was never intended to happen with this story.) Because of what it started as though, there are some distinctly *Non-Pern* elements to this story (*ahem, characters with #tragic backstories #mysterious abilities and inexplicable superpowers #characters who are totally in the wrong fandom #characters from other fandoms who have no rights being there ahem*). So if that's not your thing, you have been forewarned. If it is your thing or you just want to laugh at the hot mess of insanity that is this story, welcome! Grab some coco, or klah, whatever you want, and settle in for this bumpy ride.