#0104: Dragonriders of Pern: Dragonseye, by Anne McCaffrey

[orbitaldiamonds]

Dragonriders of Pern: Dragonseye
by Anne McCaffrey

p.16 Zulaya was tall for a woman, long-legged--all the better for bestriding a dragon's neck. He was a full head taller than she was, which she said she liked in him: B'ner had been just her height. It was her coloring that fascinated K'vin: the inky black curly hair that, once freed of the flying helmet, tumbled down below her waist. The hair framed a wide, high cheek-boned face, set off the beige of her smooth skin and large, lustrous eyes. that were nearly black; a wide and sensual mouth above a strong chin that gave her face a strength and purpose that reinforced her authority with anyone. She strode, unlike some of the hold women who minced along, her steel-rimmed boot heels noisy on the flagstones, her arms swinging at her side. She'd had time to put a long, slitted skirt over her riding gear, and it opened as she walked, showing a well-formed leg in the leather pants and high boots. She'd turned the high-riding boot cuffs down over her calf, and the red fur made a nice accent to her costume, echoed in the fur trim of her cuffs and collar, which she had opened. As usual, she wore the sapphire pendant she had inherited as the eldest female of her Blood.

p.93-94 Wondering at the good fortune that had happened to her this day, Debera watched the sleeping dragonet as dearly as any mother observed a newborn, much wanted child. Morath's belly still bulged with uneven lumps from all the meat she had eaten. T'dam had laughed when Debera worried that the dragonet would make herself sick with such greed.
     "They repeat the process six or seven times a day the first month," he'd warned her. You'll end up thinking you've spent all your life chopping gobbets until she settles to her usual three meals a day. But don't worry. By the end of the first year she'll be eating only twice a week--and catch her own at that."

p.145 Odd how important simple thins, like freshly laundered clothing, assumed the level of luxury when you've had to do without.

p.175-176 Preparing was one thing, but enduring fifty years of an aerial attack was another. Briefly he reviewed the accounts published by the besieged colonists on Sirus III and Vega IV when the Nathi had started bombarding the planets. Day after day, according to the history tapes, the worlds had been shelled with dirty missiles, rendering the surface uninhabitable. Whole generations had grown on colonial planets, living in deep shelters...Clisser smiled to himself--not much difference from the cave holds in which the Pernese now lived. And indeed those accommodations had benefited by the Sirian and Vegan experiences--using the magma core taps to provide heat, and solar panels for power. Humans had survived, under far worse conditions than pertained on this planet. At least on Pern you knew when and where Thread would fall and could mount effective defenses. And yet, the scale of Threadfall was awesome and failure had appalling consequences.
     Failure usually did.

p.247 "You should get some of Tisha's cream. It stopped my fingers from itching," Iantine snapped his fingers, "like that!"
     "Oh, I have some of that," she replied.
     "Well, it doesn't do you any good in the jar, you know."

p.328 " 'Ours not to wonder what were fair in life,' " he quoted to himself, "which is saying I should get printed out to remind me that we've got what we've got and have to make do."

p.356 "Wouldn't you rather have it?" P'tero suggested hopefully.
     "I've a copy of my own. Iantine did two, one for each of us," M'leng said, beaming proudly at his lover.
     So P'tero had to hang the wretched reminder of the worst day of his life on his own wall, just where he couldn't miss it every morning of his life when he woke up.
     "You'll never know how much this means to me," he said, and that, too, was quite truthful.
     No one thought it the least bit odd that he got very, very drunk on wine that night.

p.357-358 "I'll be frank. I'm scared I'll be needing clean pants half a dozen times the first Fall I have to lead."
     "I've wondered about it that myself," K'vin admitted drolly. Out of the corner of his eye, he was surprised to notice a fleeting expression of approval on Zulaya's face. Surely B'nor had never mentioned it as a remote possibility?
     "So, I figure, if I get a good look at it before I have to act brave and unconcerned..."
     "Anyone who isn't concerned about Thread's a damn fool," Zulaya put in.
     "Agreed." B'nurrin nodded at her, grinning. "So, will you join me?"
     "Because if two of us let go, neither of us will be as much to blame?" K'vin asked, one eye on Zulaya's face.
     B'nurrin scratched his jaw. "Yes, I guess that's the size of it."