Okay, for those of you NOT familiar with this, I'll introduce the idea.

As a series of side stories to Oh My Brother!, I started God's Toy, which
was a series of self-insertions.   The only one even started is a BGC one,
which is on hold until I get a working VCR for watching the series again.
The Toychest is a series of starts to possible other entries.  This is yet
another one.

You can find the rest at: http://angel.megami.net/cross/godstoy/teasers.txt

And all my other works at: http://angel.megami.net

**********************

Jaren sighed and sat on a ledge on the edge of the hatching grounds, and
considered the past three years.  Appearances at every single hatching on
the planet - whether or not he really wanted to.  Although, considering who
was doing the inisting, he didn't really have much choice in the matter.

Staring out at the hatching gounds, he could help but feel a little cynical
about what was about to happen.  In a few moments, all the twenty-six eggs
out there would hatch.  In the moments past that, there would be twenty-six
new dragonriders and many times that disappointed youngsters - a significant
portion which featuring significant injuries as well.

It was, he had to admit, the most impressive clutch he had ever seen.  Like
most of the eggs in the current generations of dragons, they were very
large - much larger than those of Oldtimer dragon stock. There was at least
8 bronzes in the clutch, twice that of assorted browns, greens, and blues.
But what was truly impressive was the last two eggs - not one, but two queen
eggs!  One queen would be much darker than the other, based on the eggs.
One was so dark it was suspected the queen inside would likely look like a
mix between her dam's gold and her sire's bronze, the other was exceedingly
pale - there were fears of another white dragon like Ruth, but closer
examination (and Ramoth's insistence) dispelled it.

It had been an amusing Search, from the stories.  It was hard enough to come
up with the requisite ten girls for one queen egg.  But to find that amount
for two was a herculean task.  The riders on Search had made a nuisance of
themselves all over the land, poking their and their dragon's noses into
every Hold, Hall, and Weyr they could find.

And, like had occurred every other time in the past three years, Jaren found
himself specifically requested to attend.  Not by the Weyrfolk, but by the
dragons themselves - like they were determined to have him Impress some
dragonet whether he wanted to or not.

If Jaren didn't know better, he would have suspected the dragons of playing
some elaborite practical joke on him.

The last of the boys straggled onto the grounds, just as the first of the
eggs - from its size, likely a green, Jaren judged - started to wobble.
Ramoth gave a somewhat alarmed bugle and frantically looked around the
grounds, as Mnementh echoed her.  With a sigh, Jaren stood and walked to
where the queen could see him clearly.  "I'm here, Ramoth," he called.  The
queen calmed and lowered her head to where he could pat her once, and she
made a sort of reassuring croon.  "Yes, I hope so too," he replied to what
he assumed was her question.

Jaren walked to lean against the watcher's ledge, conscious of the eyes from
the watching people above him and the murmurs among them.  *Yes, the poor
boy who's been dragged all over Pern.  He must be special if the dragons
insisted on him.  If he was so special, shouldn't he have Impressed by now?*

The shell finally cracked, and the dragonet - a green, as expected, forced
herself through the hole, shattering the rest of the egg in the process.
She cried piteously, looking around at the boys around her, finally resting
on one of the boys, who reached out and touched her gently.  He cried out
her name, and began to lead her to the feeding grounds outside.

Like it was a cue, egg after egg began to crack and open, and the Impression
process was once again into full swing.  Jaren winced as he saw a bronze
inadvertently maul a boy as he walked over him in search of the boy he
wished to Impress, who was apparently across the room.   A blue nearly
disemboweled another boy as he slipped trying to make his way past him to
his target.

As soon as it had begun, it was over, and only the two queen eggs remained.
*Another hatching, another waste of time,* Jaren mused, and turned to walk
away, only to find Ramoth bugling in alarm, this time not only Mnementh but
other dragons echoing her cry.  The queen leapt up and glared at him,
clearly desiring to go after him physically but unwilling to leave her last
two eggs until they hatched.

"Ramoth wants you to stay!" Lessa cried, running down the stairs from the
watcher's ledge to catch the boy.

Jaren made a disgusted sound as the Weyrwoman reached him.  "WHY?" he
demanded, surprised to hear how much frustration and dispair was in his
voice.  "You know I've failed again - there's only queens left."

Lessa arched an eyebrow at him.  "ONLY queens?"  As the boy flushed and
opened his mouth to explain, she laughed.  "No need to explain, I know what
you're saying," she soothed, and put her hands on his shoulders and turned
him around.  "But Ramoth wants you to stay, so please stay."

The darker queen egg had hatched, and apparently impressed with one of the
girls - Jaren was pleased to see it was one of the few that hadn't fled to
the opposite side of the grounds in fright.  The girl led her queen out of
the grounds, and Jaren was both impressed with the dark gold of the queen's
hide as her size.

The last egg began to rock, and Jaren watched it and the two girls who
managed to conquer their fears to remain at their posts.  With a thunderous
crack, the shell split down one side and almost burst open.

A gasp filled the cavern that was the hatching grounds as people saw the
freshly hatched dragonet.  The creature cried out piteously, and bowled the
pair of girls aside - the crack and angle of one of the girls' legs
indicating a bad break - and began to crawl around the grounds, looking
frantically for a person to Impress.

Jaren took a step away from the dragonet, his desire to Impress being
somewhat less than his desire to keep his hide intact, but slipped and fell
onto the hot sands.   The noise alerted the dragonet, which made a sort of
stumbling charge in his direction.  Jaren put his hands up in an aborted
attempt to save himself from the creature that was about to-

Impression.

With unsteady legs, Jaren stood up and cradled the head of the dragonet
before him.  He looked over at Lessa, who was staring at him with a shocked
look, and returned an awestuck one of his own.  "He says his name is Krith,"
he said in a voice cracked with emotion, "and that he's very hungry, and
would everyone stop staring at him?"

The next thing that occurred was almost more shocking than what came before.

*Sheesh,* the dragonet grumbled mentally - so everyone could 'hear' - and
turned his head to glare at the watchers, his eyes whiring blue and red.
*Haven't you people seen a silver dragon before?*

Gods Toy: The Silver Dragon
A Story of Pern
**The World of Pern and all characters in it are the
**property of Anne McCaffrey, and I'm using them
**w/out permission.  Let's hope A.McC.'s nice about
**fanfiction.

--
Christopher Angel
c_j_angel@hotmail.com
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