Another based on Anne MacCaffrey's Dragons of Pern series. Dedicated to FaeMike55. Background: Jaxom was to be a Lord holder once he came of age. Because dragon riders faced the peril of thread and other dangers, there was an unwritten rule that Lord holders were not eligible to be a candidate for impression because they already held a responsible job as Lord holder and had many people dependent on them (like in Medieval times). There was a standin Lord holder for Ruatha until Jaxom was old enough to take his rightful place. When a queen dragon laid eggs, candidates were selected to stand on the hatching ground when the eggs hatched, to give the new hatchlings plenty of candidates to choose from. Lord holders and other important people attended the hatching and sat in stands watching the procedure. As the dragons hatched, they chose a candidate and impressed for life, and to have a family member impress was a huge honour, tho not everyone in Pern wanted their children becoming dragon riders. The name of the dragon would be revealed to the new dragon rider who was now mentally linked to the dragon. This time there was an unhatched egg still after all the others hatched. Jaxom saw it moving and saw the dragon was struggling to hatch so rushed down to its rescue. People tried to stop him but alas too late, the dragon hatched and impressed Jaxom telling him its name was Ruth. This event caused a major problem for Pern as Ruth was the runt of the litter and white, which was unheard of, so was not expected to live. The rider cares for the dragon while it grows and lives with the dragon with the other dragons and dragon riders. It was thought that at Ruths death Jaxom would be able to resume his Lord holder duties, so later Ruth and Jaxom were able to return to Ruatha. However Ruth survived and ended up being a major dragon of importance in Perns history, with Jaxom as his rider, even when he took the position of Lord Holder of Ruatha, and the dragon that was despised and ridiculed by dragon and dragon rider alike, was found to have important talents that no one suspected. When a dragon impresses a dragon rider, it is for life and the dragon will not accept any other rider and if the rider dies, so does the dragon. If the dragon died, the rider was often distraught and also wished to die. Many dragons and riders chose to die together by going "between" which was a place they went to of blackness and nothingness as they teleported to other areas of Pern instantly based on memories of previous visits to that place. The first time a dragon teleported he used another dragons mental image to successfully teleport to the area. I hope you like this scene Mike as I know you also like the Pern series