"Accustomed as he was to the sting of the profound cold, to the awesome utter lack of light and sound, F'lar still found the sensation unnerving. Yet the uncommon transfer spanned no more time than it took to cough thrice."Dragonflight, page 63
Here is the rather long quote for the queen's flight.
"Mnementh hiccuped absently as the two walked the short passage to the vaulted inner chamber. He lumbered over to his hallowed bed and settled himself into the curved stone. When Mnementh had stretched and comfortably laid down his wedge-head, F'lar approached him. Mnementh regarded his friend with the near eye, its many facets glinting and shifting, the inner lids gradually closing as F'lar scratched the eye-ridge soothingly.
Those unfamiliar with it might find such a regard unnerving. But since that moment, twenty Turns before, when the great Mnementh had broken through his shell and stumbled across the Hatching Ground to stand, weaving on weak legs, before the boy F'lar, the dragonman had treasured these quiet moments as the happiest of a long day. No greater tribute could man be paid than the trust and companionship of the winged beasts of Pern. For the loyalty that dragonkind gave their chosen one of mankind was unswerving and complete from the instant of Impression."
Dragonflight, page 67
Here is the quote for the hatching.
"If it weren't for Ramoth, she wouldn't have stayed here a moment past Impression anyway. But, from the second in which her eyes had met those of the young queen on the Hatching Ground, nothing but Ramoth mattered. Lessa was Ramoth's and Ramoth was hers, mind and heart, irrevocably attuned. Only death could dissolve that increcible bond."
Dragonflight, page 91
"Ramoth stirred again and stretched restlessly as hunger pierced slumber. Lessa ran up the passage on light feet, eager as a child for the first sight of the glorious eyes and the sweetness that characterized the dragon's personality.
Ramoth's huge golden wedge-shaped head swiveled around as the sleepy dragon instinctively sought her Weyrmate. Lessa quickly touched her blunt chin, and the searching head was still, comforted. The several protecting lids parted over the many-faceted eyes, and Ramoth and Lessa renewed the pledge of their mutual devotion.
Ramoth had had those dreams again, she told Lessa, shuddering slightly. It was so cold there! Lessa caressed the soft down above her eye-ridge, soothing the dragon. Linked firmly to Ramoth as she had become, she was actually aware of the dismay those curious sequences produced.
Ramoth complained of an itch by the left dorsal ridge.
'The skin is flaking again,' Lessa told her, quickly spreading sweet oil on the affected area. 'You're growing so fast,' she added with mock and tender dismay.
Ramoth repeated that she itched abominably.
'Either eat less so you'll sleep less or stop outgrowing your hide overnight.'
She chanted dutifully as she rubbed in the oil, 'The dragonet must be oiled daily as the rapid growth in early development can overstretch fragile skin tissues, rendering them tender and sensitive.'
They itch, Ramoth corrected petulantly, squirming.
'Hush. I'm only repeating what I was taught.'
Ramoth issued a dragon-sized snort that blew Lessa's robe tightly around her legs.
'Hush. Daily bathing is compulsory, and thorough oiling must accompany these ablutions. Patchy skin becomes imperfect hide in the adult dragon. Imperfect hide results in skin ruptures that may prove fatal to a flying beast.'
Don't stop rubbing, Ramoth entreated.
'Flying beast indeed!'
Ramoth informed Lessa she was so hungry. Couldn't she bathe and oil later?
'The moment that cavern you call a belly is full, you're so sleepy you can barely crawl. You've gotten too big to be carried.'"
Dragonflight, page 100-101
"Ramoth yawned mightily. Lessa was instantly on her feet, running to her dragon's side, her slight figure dwarfed by the six-foot dragon head.
A tender, adoring expression flooded her face as she gazed into Ramoth's gleaming opalescent eyes. F'lar clenched his teeth, envious, by the Egg, of a rider's affection for her dragon."
Dragonflight, page 158
