Anne McCaffrey

all the time complaining at me that she could have had a career dancing topless at the Orbital Grill and Rendezvous Parlor. Her and her perky breasts. Yasmin, I told her, all the girls have perky breasts in zero-g, you were nothing special, you__e lucky a good man took you away from all that.

The tears I feel todayI'll wait to shed tomorrow.Though I'll not sleep this nightNor find surcease from sorrow.My eyes must keep their sight:I dare not be tear-blinded.I must be free to talkNot choked with grief, clear-minded.My mouth cannot betrayThe anguish that I know.Yes, I'll keep my tears til later:But my grief will never go.

Harper, treat your words with careFor they may cause joy or despairSing your songs of health and loveOf dragons flaming from above

There's something wrong in not appreciating one's own special abilities, my girl. Find your own limitations, yes, but don't limit yourself with false modesty.

Step by stepMoment by momentWe live throughAnother day

speak hard, steal the air.

Children's voices - even those who couldn't carry the tune - are always appealing.

My nightly craft is winged in white, a dragon of night dark sea.Swift born, dream bound and rudderless, her captain and crew are me.We've sailed a hundred sleeping tides where no seaman's ever beenAnd only my white-winged craft and I know the wonders we have seen.

A real scientist solves problems, not wails that they are unsolvable.

If Jana had been given to putting her thoughts into words, she might have told Laxmi that without someone to love,there was no reason to live.

Above us, outlined against the brilliant sky, dragons crowded every available perching space on the Rim. And the sun made a gold of every one of them.

To cry was to release all sorts of ugly little pressures and tensions. Like waking out of a long, dark dream to a sun-filled day.

Dragon kind was no less cruel than mankind. The Dragon, at least, acted from bestial need rather than bestial greed.__ A thought by Lessa ~

Harper to your word be trueHolder, crafter you also hewTo honesty, integrity, and respectAll others without regard to intellect

It is time to end a story that began in sorrow and ordeal and has ended in a deep and lasting happiness. May it be so for others.

Fight only in direst needNot for lust or petty greedHonor those that do give birthRespect them well for their full worth

The AI told her not long ago that her "Why?" period might have been the shortest on record - because Mum and Dad answered every "Why?" in detail AND made sure she understood, so she wouldn't ask that particular "Why?" again. After a month "Why?" wasn't fun anymore, and she went on to other things.