the course of the books into one of Pern's greatest leaders and a loving mate to F'lar. Her short temper does become famous on Pern and she continues to use her strong psychic ability to influence other people's moods and perceptions. Lessa is one of the few on Pern who can speak to all of the dragons. Lessa is described as petite, almost childlike, in figure with long, thick black hair. Her queen Ramoth is the largest dragon on the planet. F'lessan is her only child. Lessa almost dies in childbirth and additional pregnancies are assessed as too risky. This leaves Lessa somewhat bitter and she regrets in one book that she was not like Kylara, another Weyrwoman known for promiscuity, who bore several children but wanted none of them. The Skies of Pern states that Lessa left F'lessan's care to his fostermother and never paid much attention to him. Manora replies this was expected, since she was Weyrwoman and had other duties. Menolly Menolly is a tall, thin, dark-haired girl. The youngest child of Yanus, Holder of Half-Circle Sea Hold, she assisted Hold Harper Petiron (Master Robinton's father) in teaching the Hold children their learning songs, wrote her own songs and secretly dreamed of becoming a Harper, though her isolated, conservative Hold thought that was improper for girls. Her parents grudgingly allowed her to continue teaching music to the Hold children after Petiron's death because their community had no other Harper; however, they forbade her to write any music or sing or play any she had written, again because in their view Harpering was not for girls. She was forbidden to make music at all once replacement Harper Elgion arrived; in fact, her father severely beat her when she was caught "tuning" - playing her own compositions, but only a few bars - in front of the Hold children before Elgion's arrival. When Menolly seriously slashed her left hand while gutting fish, her mother deliberately allowed the wound to heal incorrectly to prevent her from playing again, and Yanus told Elgion that the one who had taken over the Teachings after Petiron died had been a boy fosterling who had returned to his own Hold. Menolly ran away from the Hold and took refuge in a cliff-side cave where, during a Threadfall, she unintentionally Impressed nine fire-lizards: gold Beauty, bronzes Rocky and Diver, browns Mimic, Lazybones and Brownie, blue