Justin sat with the other new riders over breakfast, a steaming cup of klah before him. He smiled as he lifted the cup to his face. Joseph was right; it had become a part of his daily routine.

He managed to ignore most of the conversation happening around him, concentrating solely on his cup until Jacob's voice broke into his peaceful rumination. "They said Thread comes next week."

Justin looked up to watch the others at the table nod.

Lance spoke around a spoonful of cereal, "We won't be fighting it though, just taking firestone."

"You can still get scored taking firestone," Jacob told the table. "Have you heard what it does to a man? It'll attach itself and eat him alive before he can blink between to kill it."

"That's not entirely true," a new voice broke into their conversation. Justin's head jerked up from his cup, and his eyes met Joseph's over the brim. "You left out the really good bits where it crawls under your skin and in through the sockets of your eyes, devouring you from the inside as well."

Jacob scowled. "That's not what Chris told us."

With a smirk crossing his face, Joseph replied, "Chris didn't want to scare you too badly."

The boys around the table gulped, except for Justin, who caught the teasing gleam in Joseph's eye. "Come with me, would you Justin?" he asked.

Justin nodded and rose from the table, following the older rider out of the dining hall. Once they were free of the eyes of others, Joseph took Justin's arm, leading him down one of the side caves. He'd taken Justin down here before, shortly after his father's attack, to banish any fears and memories. They'd come several times since, seeking the privacy the dark, unused caves offered.

Joseph pulled Justin behind him into one of the caves, back into the dark recesses where only a little light from the main passage way filtered. He pulled Justin into his arms, pressing the younger man as close as possible.

"You scared them, Joseph," Justin managed as Joseph's hands slid under his shirt. Joseph had his face tucked against the long line of Justin's neck, and his reply was muffled by it.

"I'm sure Chris will mend any damage," he said, between moist kisses up the column of flesh.

"I would hope," said Justin, running his hand up Joseph's back. His fingers made a quick sweep through Joseph's hair, and then ran down his neck, into his open shirt, making broad caresses on the skin of his upper back.

"Are the older riders worried?"

Joseph pulled back a bit, catching Justin's eye in the dim light spilling in from the main tunnel.

"They are. You have to remember that we've never seen Thread either. We've just had longer to train."

"So you're scared too?" Justin asked in a small voice, his eyes intent on Joseph's face.

Joseph shrugged, his shoulders rising and falling under Justin's hands. "A little," he said with a small smile of reassurance.

"Of Thread?"

Joseph smiled, pulling Justin closer. "Yes, of Thread. Just, the unknown. We've heard stories, seen the pictures on the tapestries. We just haven't seen for ourselves, first hand."

Justin nodded and cuddled in closer to Joseph's warm body, burying his face in Joseph's neck. "I'm scared."

Joseph tightened his arms across the younger man's back. "I know," he whispered into Justin's curls.

First Fall came early morning over Ruatha hold. Howard and Kevin's wings flew to meet it and Joseph, as Howard's wingsecond, flew with them.

Joseph spent the early hours of the morning before their flight in preparation for the Fall. He checked his fighting straps several times, looking for weak areas or tears in the leather. As the time for departure neared, he fed Narith the all-important firestone that would allow him to breathe the fire to char Thread.

We fight today! was Narith's excited greeting to Joseph this morning.

Yes, Joseph replied as he gave Narith the first firestone. At least one of them was excited.

This is what I'm meant for. Before Joseph could reply to that Narith added, He approaches.

Joseph turned to see Justin watching him with Narith, and he gestured the younger man over. "Want to help me?"

Justin nodded and bent to pick up a stone, dropping it in Narith's mouth when he opened for more. "Why don't queens chew firestone?"

The question surprised Joseph. "Jessica hasn't told you?"

Justin shook his head.

"Prolonged use makes them sterile. Which is why the green dragons don't clutch. If gold dragons chewed firestone, they wouldn't clutch either."

Justin blushed and dropped his head. "Oh."

They continued in silence for a little while, until Justin asked, "How do you know when to stop?"

"Narith will tell me."

Justin turned to watch the dragon carefully chew the rock they fed him, and Joseph turned to watch Justin. The boy he had been only a year ago was still so evident on his face, in his thick, curly hair. And yet Joseph could see the man he'd become, was still evolving into. Both sides were absolutely beautiful, and it continually surprised Joseph that Justin didn't seem to know.

"Do I have something on my face?"

Joseph broke himself out of his contemplation to find Justin staring back at him. "What?"

"You were staring."

Joseph lifted a hand to brush Justin's cheek. "Nothing there."

"What were you looking at?"

"Just you."

Justin blushed again and moved to offer Narith more firestone, but Narith turned his head away.

I have enough.

"He says he's done." Joseph raised a hand to scratch Narith's eye ridges.

"You leave soon, don't you?"

"Within the hour. Will you fly firestone?"

Golden curls flopped across Justin's brow as he shook his head. "I'm to stay with Honora in the Weyr Bowl and help with injuries."

Joseph reached up to brush the curls back. "That's as good a place as any."

Justin reached up and caught the hand still brushing through his curls. He gripped it tightly in his own. "Just... be careful."

Joseph pulled Justin close, and the younger man wrapped his arms around the rider.

"I will," Joseph promised.

Justin pulled away to give Narith's soft hide a scratch before he turned away to join Honora and the weyrwomen on the Bowl floor.

I like him. Joseph turned to Narith, whose eyes swirled lazily with color.

Narith surprised him. The dragon didn't often pass judgment on other riders. As do I, he said, and stepped on Narith's extended forearm to settle on his neck.

Justin stood beside Honora and watched the wings form on the floor of the Bowl. He picked Joseph out, slightly to the left and behind Howard, on Chaleth. The Wingleader formed the point of the wing formation. Thirty dragons, fifteen on each side, formed the legs of the V, spreading out behind him. Kevin's wing, with Kevin on his bronze Suninth, aligned themselves in formation on the far side of the Weyr.

After checking the formation one last time, Howard raised a fist in the air. At the signal, the dragons in his wing pushed off the ground, wings making huge down sweeps that stirred the dust up around Justin and the other onlookers. Maintaining their perfect formation, the wing blinked Between.

Justin watched Kevin's wing follow suit, and then felt Honora's hand on his arm. "You'll go soon enough, boy."

Justin smiled through his unease. "Aren't I old enough yet for you to call me something else?"

Honora chuckled and shook her head. "John is still 'boy' to me. I remember the day he Impressed Levath. Now come! They'll be streaming back soon enough needing numbweed."

Justin nodded and followed the woman back to where the other queen riders waited.

The first dragon came back not twenty minutes later, and Justin recognized it as Nick's Kettith. The dragon screeched with pain as it hurriedly landed, bending low so the women could get to the rider. Justin could see Nick's face as they pulled him from the dragon; scorch marks traveled down the left side of his face, put there by contact with Thread. Kettith hadn't been hit, the frenzied screeching was a response to the pain felt by his rider.

Justin felt Ayleth's inquiry before the words fully formed in his mind. Kettith's rider is hurt?

Yes. Is Kettith all right?

Justin waited while Ayleth tried to speak to Kettith, who'd calmed considerably once Nick's wounds had been coated with numbweed.

Kettith is fine.

More casualties of the Fall came in, but most got back on their dragons after the application of numbweed to their wounds and returned to fight. Honora and the other women kept Justin busy with demands for more pots of numbweed, clean rags, and thread to sew wounds together.

Justin had Ayleth check with Narith every so often, and knew from her reports that the Fall was not as light as the charts indicated, and a passing windstorm made the fighting even more difficult. Dragons and Thread were thrown about in the drafts, crashing into each other to the peril of the fighting team.

Two hours into the Fall, Ayleth alerted Justin to Luth's impending arrival. Luth comes back.

The small blue dragon appeared moments after Ayleth's announcement, keening wildly, occasionally screeching with pain. From Justin's view, the dragon's wing seemed to be scorched, but as the dragon dropped closer, Justin could see Jacob had taken the brunt of the Thread clump that struck them. The man lay limp and lifeless over Luth's neck, held on only by his fighting straps.

Luth crouched close enough that the women could pull Jacob from his back, and Justin went to spread numbweed on the dragon's wing as we watched the women assess Jacob's injuries.

Suddenly, Luth's painful keening grew in intensity, until the dragon emitted a wail, mournful and agonized. He launched himself aloft, crying piteously, knocking Justin to the ground with the force of his down sweep. Once he cleared the ground, he blinked Between, rider-less.

The significance of Luth's disappearance did not occur to Justin immediately. Not until the appalling keen from every dragon in the Weyr started up did Justin realize the momentous occasion. Justin turned in a slow circle in the middle of the Bowl floor, watching every dragon around him rise up on their haunches, mourning the passing of one of their own.

What happened? he asked Ayleth.

His rider died.

His rider died, and a dragon could not live without his rider.

Where did Luth go?

Nowhere.

Justin felt hot tears stinging his eyes as he turned to where Jacob lay on the ground, surrounded by the women who hadn't even had a chance to save him. Luth had gone Between without a rider, without a clear picture of a destination. Such a trip Between never ends, and the dragon dies Between.

Chris needs you.

Justin turned away from Jacob to find Chris gesturing to him frantically. Justin ran to Chris's position at the edge of the Bowl, surrounded by sacks of firestone. Chris was already yelling to him when Justin skidded to a stop. "I need you to take Jacob's place. I need another dragon to be taking firestone." The other man's face was ravaged but frantic, his grief at Jacob's death overwhelmed by the need to help those fighting Thread.

Justin nodded and ran to his weyr to get his riding jacket and helmet. Ayleth waited on the stone ledge outside and bowed her neck to him as he rushed over with the fighting straps. As he buckled the straps around her neck, she said excitedly, We go to fight?

"No, we're just taking firestone. Not fighting."

When do we fight?

"I'm not sure, but soon enough."

Pulling the helmet tight over his curls, he climbed up Ayleth's forearm and settled around her neck, buckling himself into the straps.

Fly down to Chris.

Ayleth launched herself from her weyr at his command, flying over the queen riders to the other side of the Bowl. Justin looked down for one more glimpse of Jacob, a sort of talisman to take with him, but the women had already moved the man's body.

Ayleth landed carefully next to Chris, who attached two bags of firestone to her straps. "Rahleth will give Ayleth the destination. A rider will be waiting for you on the other end to take it to the rider that needs it."

Justin nodded and when Chris gave the signal, urged his dragon aloft. Do you have the picture? he asked her.

From Rahleth, yes.

Between!

Justin and Ayleth had experienced the intense, bitter cold of Between before, from when they first began training with Jessica, but each time the intense feeling of nothingness took his breath away.

He emerged in the turbulent air above Ruatha. In front of him, he could see the battle against Thread spread out across the landscape. The wings fought to remain in formation as the wind tore them apart, making the light Thread fall erratic and difficult to fight. The Thread fell like rain; great, huge drops of twisted silver, hurtling towards the earth in hissing spurts. Dragons chased the falling Thread, flaming it as it fell, not allowing any to hit the ground. He watched them blink Between in a frenzied pattern, escaping Thread or each other's bursts of flame, emerging in almost the exact spot they'd left moments before.

He tried to find Joseph amid the whirling wings, but he couldn't, at this distance, make out individual dragons. Is Narith still all right?

Yes.

And Justin would have to take that reassurance, as Brian, the green rider from his Search, approached him. "You have the bags?" he called.

Justin nodded and flew in closer, carefully transferring the bags from Ayleth's straps to Divith's.

Thread began falling closer to their position, blown there by the windstorm. Brian, who had the bags securely fastened, flew Divith over to scorch it, calling back to Justin as he went. "Go back! You can't fight the Thread! Go!"

Why can't I fight?

We don't have a flamethrower, Ayleth! We have to leave!

Justin was about to give Ayleth the image to go Between back to Fort when Lance appeared in the air next to him, firestone sacks attached to his straps. Justin turned to call to the other man to go back, and, because he faced Lance, saw the bundle of Thread heading for Lance's spot.

He yelled to catch Lance's attention, but he was too late. The scream of both dragon and human pierced Justin's thoughts, and he yelled to Ayleth to get Samarth to go Between.

They need to kill it! Give her the picture of Fort!

I did!

Justin watched Lance and Samarth blink Between, and he and Ayleth followed.

The emerged behind the pair and Samarth faltered in her flight path.

Help her! Justin said to Ayleth.

I will.

Ayleth flew closer to Samarth, then dropped beneath the other dragon and came up until she supported the smaller green. Samarth keened mournfully, and Justin could hear Lance's pained cries as Ayleth helped the pair limp to the ground.

As they reached the floor of the Bowl, Ayleth moved aside, allowing Samarth to drop the last few feet on her own.

Women rushed forward, bearing jars of numbweed and bandages for the injured pair.

Will he die? Justin asked Ayleth.

No. They are hurt, but they'll survive.

Justin breathed a little easier, knowing that Lance would be all right, but he knew that the man was still in a lot of pain. He turned to his dragon, and saw Ayleth's eyes swirling red in sympathetic pain.

Come, Chris still needs us.

But Chris didn't. "Fall's almost over. They'll be back shortly."

Justin went to check on Lance, but he'd already been taken to the Infirmary. Samarth slept on the ledge of Lance's weyr. Justin had no idea what they'd done with Jacob's body.

That line of thought took him back to that moment, the utter pain in Luth's cry before he swept himself aloft and Between, blinking out of existence.

We are sad now, Ayleth said, acknowledging the general attitude of the Weyr.

Justin walked to where his dragon lay on her stone ledge, outside their weyr. He dropped down to the ground beside her and leaned back against her soft hide, needing that contact, as well as their mental link, to reassure him, to chase the memories of Luth's horrible screams from his mind.

Your heart is sad.

Dragons didn't often think in specific terms, but even then, their choice of expression normally got to the heart of the matter. Yes.

Luth will be missed.

Yes.

You should rest now.

Ayleth started to hum, a low rumbling sound, and the feel of it lulled him to sleep.

The changing of light patterns across his eyelids woke Justin about an hour later. He opened his eyes and saw Joseph standing over him, between him and the sun.

"Narith told me when Luth died. They couldn't do the mourning cry, it would have interfered with their flaming, but he told me. They all bellowed."

The ravaged emotion evident on Joseph's face belied his flat speech. Justin reached up to grab his hand, and pulled the man down upon him, cradled in his arms, stretched out between his spread legs. Joseph buried his face in Justin's neck as he continued.

"Narith also told me when you came, when Samarth was hurt."

Justin pulled the man closer against him, reassuring him with his warm body and tight embrace. He pressed his lips to Joseph's ear, whispering anything and nothing to calm him.

"Just… we heard the stories. But we didn't know. Thread fell all around, blown by that wind, and from all directions I could hear the screams as men were hit. It was horrible."

Justin moved his head around until he could reach Joseph's forehead with his mouth, and placed small kisses over his face, catching tears that threatened to fall.

He caught Joseph's mouth with his, not teasing, not seducing, but comforting, assuring the other man of his presence, his affection. He didn't speak, words seemed out of place somehow. He just held, as close as possible, and loved.

They slept again, entwined, leaning up against the soft hide of the golden dragon.

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