Disclaimer: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Thirteen: Back to the Future

Tristan woke but kept his eyes shut as he frowned, trying to remember the last thing he had known. He remembered the dragon, Thyrath, and her rider, Nairyry… the leap off the Empire State Building…

and the police barricade.

Thyrath had told him, Jess and Nairyry to take a deep breath and hold on… and then his trip. In the between place he had lost consciousness. That was the last thing he had seen.

Tristan opened his eyes. He was slumped over something. After a moment he realized that he was still on Thyrath, and leaning forward against Jess. Jessica, in turn, had fallen forward onto Nairyry, who was tilted over Thyrath's neck.

"Hey, Thyrath!" He slid stiffly down the gold dragon's side to land on sand. More shakily than he would have like to admit he made his way to Thyrath's head. The queen was asleep. "Thyrath!" he yelled. With a jerk that jolted poor Jess off her neck to land on soft sand she woke, eyes whirling red and yellow. They settled to green and blue and spun slower.

"Sorry, but you need to wake up," he told her, going over to help a very disoriented, confused, shaken, bruised, traumatized, dirty and half-asleep Jess get to her feet. "Help me get Nairyry off, Jess," ho told her. She still looked shaken, bruised and sandy, but at least she was able to stand up. And able to assist him getting the dragonrider down.

"So… just where… where are we, Thyrath?" the teenage girl asked once they had gotten Nairyry to the ground. In answer the golden dragon stood and bugled happily at something in the sky. Tristan and Jess turned to see dragons, two bronzes, a gold and a green, spiraling down to land.

First on the sand was one of the bronzes was the first to land. He came to twine necks with the gold in a very affectionate gesture. The man skidded to so sudden a halt that he nearly fell over on top of Nairyry. He knelt beside her and pulled her close, hugging her tightly.

"You must be W'lam." There was suppressed glee in her voice and she was trying not to laugh.

The bronze rider looked up at them, likely to ask a question, but Nairyry turned her head slightly and opened her eyes. "Nairyry!" The tone in his voice was all Jess needed. She burst out laughing and Tristan chuckled along with her.

"You're W'lam, all right!" she cried, then flopped back against Thyrath and patted the golden hide companionably. It took her a moment to regain her composure.

"Would you please explain to me just how- where, when by the first Egg you found Nairyry!" They grinned at his explosion, odd in a man still holding his love and rocking her gently. "I thank you more than you can even imagine, but–"

"Later, please. We'll tell everything later, W'lam." Only Nairyry's firm, calm voice had any effect on the totally confused rider. He bent his head and kissed her fiercely, passionately and very protectively.

"You will," he told her grimly. "Shells, what're you wearing?" He plucked at the black coat, frowning.

The goldrider looked down at her trench coat, glanced over at her younger friends and sighed, grinning sheepishly up at W'lam. "Long story…"

000

"You needn't worry about the time you spend here, Tristan. No mater how much time we spend at this end of time, at your time we'll bring you back at the right time." The young man continued to study the sea from his perch on a fallen tree along the shore. "That made no sense at all, did it." Nairyry waited, watching the waves as she leaned against a tipped-up branch.

His reply, when it came, was troubled. "That's it, you know. I don't exactly want to go back. I saw just how much your people have to teach me. I'd like to study harp, you know. And I know Jess'll be staying, so I'll have a friend to talk to who knows what I'm saying. You too, but her because–" he glared at Nairyry, who was smiling knowingly at him. "Anyway…" he glared again "I'll understand the things from earth she talks about and she'll understand me."

Nairyry still smiled and he stuck out his tongue at her, then hopped down to the beach and strolled away. She watched him go. And suddenly 'After', after the last Pass of Thread, looked a whole lot brighter.

000

She continued to stare out over the sea. It didn't really seem so big now. In the sevenday since she and the two teens had come back she had explained many times what she had dome for the two months she had been gone in this time. Strange, she reflected. That two days had felt like two months.

W'lam came to sit beside her. A breeze blew her hair away from her face, held back by a leather strip tied around her forehead. Her trench coat flapped over her jeans, tank top and converse, making her gloves sway on her belt beside her knife. An odd mix of Earth and Pernese fashions, she thought vaguely.

With a sigh she leaned against W'lam, turning her face up for a kiss. "They'll be good candidates. The dragons call Tristan Dragon-Sumner still. He's more mentally powerful than even Lessa. I think that Jess can hear any dragon as well as Aramina, but it's not a problem. All the dragons also agree she'd be a good candidate for Thyrath's clutch."

W'lam chuckled. "The last time Pern had a dragonrider from earth it was the first clutch of eggs. Faranth, Duluth, Carenath… and here we are; these children like close to the ancestors of the first riders.

She softly whispered one of Lessa's sayings. "The world turns and times change…"

"Oh, how times change," she said to herself.

"They do indeed."

They sat quietly for a moment. Jess raced past the two dragonriders with her lovely blue skirt billowing around her legs, Tristan in pursuit, both teenagers shrieking with laughter. She splashed lightly into the water and her friend came in after her. He caught hold of her and spun her around. Then he dropped her and held her close. She reached up and kissed him soundly.

Sighing happily the qoldrider stood and watched as Thyrath winged down. She leapt nimbly off the uprooted tree and ran to her dragon. They spiraled up into the sky, where waiting patiently were Jurcath and W'lam. It had been slower than usual to get off the ground because of Thyrath's egg-heavy bulk. Nairyry felt a thrill as she realized that her dragon's first clutch was coming soon, any time now. They were pretty much Weyrbound because of it. That would be nearly the same as having her own child.

The young man grows attached to Jess, commented Thyrath. Good. She deserves gold and he bronze. Again they looked at the teenagers from earth. By the Egg of Faranth, Nairyry, dragonrider of queen Thyrath the Golden, was glad that she would be able to see how Tristan Charleston and Jessica Palmer, two strangers from another time and world, would live, learn and grow.

And she felt certain that whatever they did, no mater where it was, the three of them could share something no one else would know.

Suddenly the dragon, more bronze than gold right now, jolted in the air and gave a satisfied rumble of pleasure.

You know, commented Thyrath, we should hurry to the Hatching Grounds right now. Right now.

Nairyry smiled, slightly embarrassed, but pleased, and looked over at W'lam. She knew he and Jurcath had heard.

Then hurry we shall.

000

And they did hurry back to Nais Weyr, but that tale is for later. The tale of the Impression of Thyrath's clutch, of Jessica's and Tristan's Impressions. The tale of Vailath, the only silver dragon and the return to earth is for another time.

For now, suffice to say that they are to live happily for many long Turns after with the dragons on Pern.

000

The Dragonstime series in written and chronological order:

Dragon in New York City

Across Time and Two Worlds

Starsflight