literature

For the Dragonlady

Deviation Actions

Koceta's avatar
By
Published:
581 Views

Literature Text

Mournful dragon cries
fill the Thread-free skies
one has gone forever between.

Her work; bright like fire,
her world; our hearts desire,
goodbye to Pern's most valiant queen.

A legacy remains.
Dragons will fly again.
She's captured our hearts and mind's eye.

In memories, stay,
you will not fade away.
Fly high, Dragonlady, fly high!
Yesterday I learned that Anne McCaffery, my favorite fantasy/sci-fi writer, passed away last week on November 21. Anne McCaffery wrote a series called the Dragonriders of Pern. The books were about people trying to colonize a planet they called Pern (originally stood for Parallel Earth Resources Negligible) to escape intergalactic war.

All went well for the first few years on Pern, and the settlers even managed to make pets out of the native fauna they called Fire-lizards for their resemblance of mythical dragons and their ability to breathe fire. Then one day, Thread fell from the sky.

Thread was a mindless organism that ate anything organic. you were only safe in the water or under rock and steel. By now the colonists had lost contact with all other humans in space, but with the scant technology they had, they bio-engineered the fire-lizards to massive size, to create a line of defense to protect the new planet they called home. They created dragons.

These dragons, along with the ability to breathe fire, also had the power of teleportation (or going between as they say) and telepathic communication. Each dragon, upon hatching, forms a lifelong, unbreakable bond with its rider and will even follow their rider in death by committing suicide and going between forever.

Anne McCaffery was world renowned, winning many major awards in the sci-fi/fantasy genre, something many females of that field do not. She was well loved and will never be forgotten.
© 2011 - 2024 Koceta
Comments12
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
LadyCoriana's avatar
This is quite good!  I started to cry a little - it's a real shame she's gone.