@Dragons and @Fire-Lizards prefer to lay clutches in hot sands. Wild fire-lizards often choose warm coastal locations, while dragons typically make use of a weyr's Hatching Ground. A clutch can take several days to complete. Eggs take on a mottled color, with the exception of queen eggs, which are larger and golden colored, marking the presence of a gold hatchling. Freshly laid eggs are soft and leathery. The heated sands in which they are laid help harden the eggs as they mature. Clutches that are ready to hatch are nearly rock hard. The number of eggs in a clutch varies greatly depending on circumstances. Higher, faster mating flights are believed to result in larger clutches. In addition, larger clutches are often seen immediately prior to or during a Pass.
Queen dragons and queen fire lizards retain a strong maternal instinct and are fiercely protective of their clutches. In dragons, this instinct is the only known exception to a dragon's tendency to suicide immediately at the death of their rider. The queen will stay just long enough to see the clutch hatch and impress. Green fire lizards, however, are not as attentive and tend to lay their clutches in unsafe areas. Thus, green clutches often do not survive to hatch, helping to keep the population in check, as green fire lizards vastly outnumber golds.
Search is an action taken by a Weyr in which @Dragons and their @Dragonriders are sent out to various Holds to look for people with the potential to Impress a dragon. All people of Pern have a right to be Searched, and it is forbidden to either take an eligible person against their will, or to prevent an eligible youth from being searched. During the First Interval, there was a list of candidates, along with an 'Announcement of Search' letter.
Searches are held after a clutch is laid by a gold queen dragon. During the Search, the dragons will sense youths who were likely to be Impressed. When a likely person is chosen, he or she will be taken to the Weyr, if their parents or guardians allow it. Some dragons are especially talented at choosing likely candidates. Canth, a brown dragon from the Ninth Pass, is noted for his talent at finding likely riders, especially queen riders.
People who are chosen by the dragons are referred to as Candidates. Searching is necessary due to the fact that Weyrs prefer a surplus of candidates to eggs, as a dragon that cannot impress will die. While those people born in the Weyr are automatically allowed to be candidates, there are sometimes not enough eligible people in the Weyrs, requiring that outside people be brought in. For much of Pern's history, female candidates are only chosen when a Queen egg has been laid, though female riders became more common in the Ninth Pass, when green dragons resumed impressing women alongside men. Those who do not impress a dragon can remain in the Weyr or return home as they wish.
The Search begins after a queen dragon has mated and clutched. Wings of riders are assigned territories to Search. The wing will typically start at the Major Hold, then proceed to the Crafthalls and minor holds under that Hold's jurisdiction. At each stop, the dragons will sense those who have a good aptitude to become a rider. It is a common misconception amongst laypeople that the riders choose the candidates, rather than the dragons.
Once a candidate has been chosen, they will be taken to the Weyr and hosted until the Hatching.
A Hatching is a major event in a weyr and refers to the time when the dragonets emerge from their eggs and impress with their lifelong @Human partner.
Hatchings are considered an important and joyous event in the Weyr and takes place at the Weyr's Hatching Ground. Newly hatched @Dragons will choose a suitable human to impress. The pair become part of the weyr, ensuring the Weyr's continuation so that there will be sufficient forces to fight Thread. Weyrs will often invite important dignitaries from the Holds or Craft Halls to attend, as well as families of the candidates. Hatchings will be followed by a meal for all in attendance. Music will often be performed by the Weyr's Weyrsinger and any harpers in attendance.
Hatchings are preceded by a Search, where potential candidates are chosen. It is not required that a person become a candidate, and in fact some families will often refuse to let a potential candidate stand.
Candidates are said to have natural empathic abilities which initially draw search dragons to them and can cause hatchlings to find them suitable for Impressions. The cause of the empathic abilities is not known, although many references to "dragonrider blood" making people more likely to be Searched shows it may be possible that there are genetic influences. This is mere speculation, however.
Candidates at hatchings are always white clad and are usually between the ages of ten and the early twenties. A surplus of candidates is required as dragonets who do not find a suitable candidate to impress will die. At the end of the First Interval the records show five cases in which this happened. The majority of candidates tend to be male. While gold dragons only impress to female candidates, gold dragon hatchlings are rare. Meanwhile, while green dragons initially impressed female candidates, a lack of availability led greens to impress male candidates, until the Ninth Pass, when greens once again began impressing women.
Dragonets would sometimes choose a human who was not explicitly a candidate. Once chosen, a candidate who impressed is expected to put aside all plans in favor of the Weyr. The only known exception to this rule is Jaxom, who was allowed to remain as both Lord Holder of @Ruatha Hold and a @Dragonrider due to his unique situation. Candidates who fail to impress can choose to remain at the Weyr or return to their home or craft. A Weyr's Weyrleaders will often make a point to comfort candidates who fail to impress.
Dragons in the weyr will react to the Queen's maternal croon with a deep humming (called "a pre-birth lullaby" by headmaster Clisser). The humming gets louder and louder and a chorus of tones will develop when more and more dragons (their throats swelling) join the queen (at the last stages the dragon's chest and belly also start to vibrate). Some of them get so excited that they start aerial maneuvers, flipping here and there on seemingly unavoidable collision courses. People react to this humming on an emotional level with a mix of primal emotions (for example: pride, joy, hope, fear, yearning, sadness and hunger), ranging from utter happiness to fear and sadness. Healers are always attending hatchings because of the injuries that generally occur.
Impression refers to the mental bonding that occurs between a @Dragon, @Fire-Lizard, or @Watch-Wher and a @Human. When a fire lizard or watch-wher Impresses, it can give its trainer or owner impressions about what it is feeling, and it has the ability to project its thoughts to a limited extent. Dragons, however, are capable of full-fledged mental communication with their @Dragonrider.
Fire lizards, the genetic predecessors of dragons, have the ability to form a mental bond with the first person who feeds it after hatching. This bond is almost a reflexive, instinctive thing, and allows the fire lizard limited communication with its owner, generally appearing as emotions or images. Fire lizards are not particular as to whom they Impress, and a human can Impress more than one fire lizard. Watch-whers are also capable of impressing but are capable of changing to whom they are bonded.
For dragons, however, Impression is not a choice but a necessity. Impression being necessary for dragons was the deliberate work of geneticist Kitti Ping Yung, who recognized that introducing large, flying carnivores that can think for themselves into the planet's ecosystem, without a definitive control, would be disastrous for both humans and all other species on Pern. A dragon growing up without human guidance, or outliving their rider, could potentially become extremely dangerous. Thus, hatchling dragons retain a strong instinctive desire to Impress to a human. Dragons who do not find a suitable candidate with whom to Impress are known to go between. Thus, it is traditional for Weyrs to offer large numbers of candidates, to ensure that the hatchlings have sufficient choice. However, a hatchling will occasionally choose a human who was not a candidate, choosing instead someone in the audience. Both Jaxom and Mirrim were chosen by their respective dragons while they were in the audience of a Hatching.
Hatchling dragons are born knowing their name, and make their choice known by communicating their name to their desired candidate. Successful Impressions often bring intense feelings of joy to the chosen human. For a dragon and a human, Impression is more than the mere melding of two minds together. They literally became one being with two bodies, their souls intertwine to the extent that there is no way for them to tell where dragon begins and human ends. Thus, it surpasses the familiar concept of telepathy. The emotions, thoughts, desires, wants and needs of both dragon and human partners are known to each other. Though a human can live, although shattered and incomplete, after the loss of his or her dragon, if the human partner dies, the dragon would instantly go between, as the dragon can not comprehend or fathom life without its human counterpart. In the case of gold dragons with unhatched eggs, the maternal instinct can prevent the dragon from committing suicide until her eggs have safely hatched and the hatchlings themselves have impressed. After Moreta's death, her dragon Orlith remained until her eggs hatched, then went between. Similarly, Jora's Nemorth also waited until her eggs hatched before going between.