J'ray woke up, his mouth dry and every muscle and joint aching. His mind reached for his dragon's even before his eyes opened, and he heard someone say, "Oeth is still alive. Go back to sleep."

He ignored the command and rubbed his eyes. "I feel like I've been drugged and beaten," he said, his voice a harsh croak. He opened his gritty eyes to see Loya sitting by his bedside.

"You have been drugged, but not beaten," Loya told him. "At least, not intentionally. Even with Rowath, Bith, and my Tayith there to catch you, you were still bruised in the landing. I expect you will be sore for a while."

"J'bie? Jusuth?"

"The others are fine. Rowath stopped Jusuth from going between in the shock of his rider falling off. You caught J'bie just in time to avoid that tragedy." She began fussing with the sleeping furs tucked around J'ray's body. Something about the gesture made J'ray suspicious, and he caught her hand in one of his.

"You said Oeth is alive, and I can feel him sleeping now. Is... is he going to be all right?"

Loya looked at him, her expression sad. "Sakora says that Oeth will never fly again. There was too much damage to his left wing. He basically took a tree through it to get you to J'bie in time." The junior weyrwoman watched J'ray's face as she spoke, waiting for the words to sink in.

"You can't be sure of that yet." J'ray clung to hope. "It could heal, right?"

Loya looked down at her hands. "J'ray, there is still a chance of infection. There is no chance of flying again. The tree branches ripped right through most of the wing. We don't know how it's going to heal, but Oeth has been a real trooper about the pain, telling Rowath that he must live for you—"

J'ray stood up, interrupting Loya's explanation. He had a moment of annoyance at the recognition that he was naked. "Where is he? Where am I? I need to see Oeth now!"

"In a ground-level weyr, of course," Loya answered, handing him a pair of freshly-laundered breeches, which he impatiently stepped into. She motioned to the sleeping dragon nearby.

J'ray? J'ray was so overjoyed to hear Oeth's thoughts in his mind again that he stopped short for a second. We are both awake at the same time! This is good. Oeth sounded tired, but as content as possible, considering his wing still throbbed a little despite the liberal coating of numbweed. His bronze had a grayish tinge to it, though, which almost panicked J'ray. He swallowed hard. It would do no good to pass that panic on to Oeth.

Loya had stopped beside him in concern, but she must have realized that he was talking to Oeth because she gave a small smile. J'ray asked, "How did we here?"

"This is one of the outermost weyrs," Loya explained. "N'mon organized your whole wing to lift you back in the air and fly you straight back to the Weyr. It was slow going, but Oeth was wild and would not go between because you did not want him to. N'mon wanted Sakora and Rowath to order him to do so, but Rowath said it was a bad idea. You have been asleep for the better part of two days. I dosed you myself."

Rowath was afraid that we might stay between because my wing hurt so much! Oeth exclaimed in J'ray's mind. But you told me to stay with you, and I did until Rowath said that it was all right to let them carry you away to heal you.

J'ray could not recall any of the trip. "All I remember is screaming," he admitted.

I stayed with you, reassured his dragon. You are my rider, and you did not want to go between yet.

J'ray sent Oeth his most loving thoughts as Loya slowly uncovered the bandaged wing so that she could apply fresh numbweed.

When J'ray saw the damage to Oeth's wing, he almost threw up. Oeth clumsily stood up, his eyes changing from a dull yellow-grey to orange. Is it so bad? he asked, worriedly. It was clear that his rider's opinion was the only one that mattered to him.

"It is bad," J'ray admitted out loud, so that Loya would be included in the conversation, "but what matters is that we are both alive and still have each other, my bigger half!" Oeth settled back down at J'ray's response, and Loya placed a friendly hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she said, but J'ray waved a hand, cutting her short.

"You tried to warn me, but there was nothing you could have said to prepare me for that." The membranes had indeed been ripped clear of the delicate boning of Oeth's wing. Many of the bones had been set to the best of the dragonhealers' ability, but it was obvious now to J'ray that the wing would never work correctly again. To never fly again—that will be worse than death. Maybe we should have gone between, after all! But he quickly pushed that thought out of his mind, not wanting to upset Oeth. We will have to fly again, he thought to himself, desperately.

"Oeth has been very brave for you," Loya said, "and now you must be brave for him."

"Yes," J'ray mumbled. What would they even do, he and Oeth? Retire, like a few of the very oldest riders, who slept most of the days away in their weyrs, waiting for death? He was too young for that. "I guess it's time to face facts, then," he said to Loya, and he impatiently swept back the tapestry to the opening of the weyr and looked out across the busy Weyr Bowl.

"What rotten, sharding timing! Why didn't that little fool get Zilth out of the Weyr?"

J'ray watched the green dragon take off into the air on a mating flight, and some blues, browns, and a few bronzes took off after her. Oeth had caught Zilth several times, and they had always been especially enjoyable flights for J'ray. He saw Jesla, her rider, looking confused, as the men guided her back to her own weyr. After ten years in the Weyr, the woman still seemed surprised every time her dragon rose. But there weren't many female greenriders these days, and she was very popular among the browns and bronzes.

He looked at Oeth, anxiously, but his dragon did not seem disturbed. The junior weyrwoman did, however.

"As soon as she emerges from her weyr, I am going to throttle that woman!" Loya was fuming. "Didn't you and she... Didn't..."

I have caught Zilth in the past, Oeth said. But my wing is hurt. Someone else will catch her today. The dragon sounded matter-of-fact, and J'ray laughed shortly, catching Loya's hand in his own and then dropping it as if it burned him.

"He's fine, so don't get into such a temper," he said. He was very aware of the mating flight himself, however, and stopped himself just short of pulling Loya into his arms, as he would a willing woman from the Lower Caverns. That was no way to behave with a weyrwoman, he thought.

I would not mind if you and Loya have sex, Oeth said, drowsily. He turned around a little on his bed to put his face to the wall, as if to give them privacy. Where had a dragon learned the concept of privacy, J'ray wondered.

The goldrider's face turned crimson, and J'ray realized that Oeth had included her in his announcement.

"I have... things to attend to," she stammered. "This... this is not the time..." Turning, she ran quickly from the weyr, and J'ray decided it was time for a long, hot bath.