and trusting nature resulted in his death and almost all of the Ruathan bloodline. Lessa escaped her family's massacre because she hid in the watch-wher's den. According to the books, Lessa was 11 turns (years) old at the time of the attack, although in DragonFlight, F’lar guesses she could not have been over 10 years old at the time. Lessa was already headstrong and independent. Her father mentions her as "stubborn at only four [years old]", and the Harper Robinton is amused, years later, when she falls asleep during a marching song. Lessa spends a decade as a drudge in Ruatha's kitchens, where she survives abuse and subtly undermines a hold which should otherwise thrive, to gain revenge against Fax. She bides her time, hoping Fax will renounce the hold or be killed so that she can step forward and claim the Hold as the only survivor of Ruathan Blood. When Benden dragonriders arrive in Search for a woman with the telepathic talents to Impress the new queen dragonet, the dragons feel her aura. She uses her psychic abilities to force the dragonrider F'lar to a duel with Fax, which F'lar wins. Lessa reluctantly gives up her right to inherit Ruatha Hold to the newborn Jaxom. Jaxom is the son of her distant cousin Gemma, whom Fax married to give his claim to Ruatha legitimacy. She travels to Benden Weyr and becomes Pern's only Weyrwoman, and joins forces with Weyrleader F'lar to fight the resurgence of the voracious alien life-form called "Thread". Lessa's most notable achievement is her rediscovery that dragons can travel between times as well as places. She makes daring use of this skill to make a single jump back 400 Turns into the past in a search for help to fight Thread in her time. F'lar believes she has jumped to her death and is left in despair in the present, but Lessa succeeds in persuading the dragonriders at the end of the Eighth Pass to travel with her to the future. These "Oldtimers" and the riders of Lessa's time resume the battle against Thread's menace to life on Pern. Several of these Oldtimers later become an additional threat to Lessa's and F'lar's quest to help Pern survive the present Pass. Lessa is at first a seemingly unsociable and cynical personality because of the abuse she endured after Fax's conquest of Ruatha. She grows and matures during