Pronunciation: Yee-LEE-sah. Last syllable is between an 'ah' and a schwa without being really either one.
Origins of the name: Corruption of the name Eliesa, which is the name of my sister-in-law, and a name I like a lot. I would've used it, but it was already taken. Now I much prefer this version.
A glance reveals a lively, attractive young woman. Waist-length waves of purest golden sunshine are eternally flopping in her face, often obscuring brilliant emerald eyes and sharp, almost elfin features. Creamy porcelain skin shows no sign of any other color, save for a sprinkling of freckles across her cheeks and nose. The figure of a dancer or an acrobat shows enough curve to pique interest, but not too much. A hint of a smile plays around her rosy lips. The flighty demeanor of her earlier years has given way to a brisk, businesslike manner, well-suited to the healer's craft. A lively sense of humor gleams in her eyes, winking cheerfully at the world. She appears to be 18 Turns 12 months and 15 days old.
Simple, comfortable, this outfit is perfect for lounging around after Fall, or training, or...whatever. Soft cream fabric is fashioned into a knee-length tunic, long-sleeved and V-necked, split on both sides to mid-thigh and garnished with trailings of blue embroidery along the hemline, neckline, and cuffs. The same soft cloth, dyed blue, forms loose trousers worn under the tunic. Soft house shoes complete the outfit. Her hair is loose for once, trailing to her waist in an unremitting fall of sunbeams.
Pinned to the shoulder of her outfit is a double-looped, brown-and black knot, with a single tassel hanging from it--the knot of an Assistant Weyrlingmaster at Fort Weyr. A ribbon of green threads through in homage to her dragon Maeveth.
Yilisa hails from a reasonably-sized hold in Keroon, the daughter of a relatively well-off runner breeder. She is the second of five children, having one elder brother, one younger, and two younger sisters. She showed an aptitude for healing human and beast at a very young age, and was encouraged to develop her talent as much as possible.
At the age of twelve Turns, her parents sent her to the Healer Hall as an apprentice. When she became a senior apprentice, she was posted to Fort Weyr under the tutelage of Journeyman Healer Jesyka. This afforded her the opportunity to get her hands on the dragons, and she began studying the arts of dragonhealing, proving rather adept in it. Without warning, however, her studies were interrupted when Daphne's green Ziaketh chose her to Stand for Ceristh's first clutch.
Candidacy was reasonably uneventful. She made some firm friends, though, in Nicole, a Holder girl from Fort, and Mikal, the son of a minor holder. In her free time between chores, she continued her Healer's studies, having every intention of going back to her Craft should she not Impress a dragon. Fate had other ideas, though. On that day on the Sands, the love of her life appeared in the form of a little green dragonet. << What are you waiting for, Yilisa? I am Maeveth! >>
Yilisa entered weyrling training with her friends, working hard to master the techniques needed to fight the deadly silver Thread that fell from Pern's skies. Weyrling training proved to be as reasonably uneventful as her Candidacy, and she grew up into a lovely young woman with a lovely green dragon at her side.
After graduating, Yilisa resumed her studies of dragonhealing, often assisting her old mentor Jesyka in the infirmary, learning the ins and outs of caring for the magnificent beasts. She didn't get much of a chance to absorb herself in her studies, though: Ceristh rose again, Nuadath caught, and her clutchmate M'kal found himself as Weyrleader...and promptly made her his Weyrlingmaster, leaving her to cope with the first clutch from another of her clutchmates: Nicole's Rhiannoth. She did the best she could, although not having any actual experience flying Thread hampered her somewhat. During her stint as Weyrlingmaster, she completed her studies and was also named the Weyr's senior dragonhealer. Combining the two was nigh onto impossible, and she often felt that she was slighting one job for another. Life wasn't done throwing loops at her yet, though.
Shortly after graduating Rhiannoth's weyrlings, and midway through Salteth's first clutch of Superbrats, Maeveth rose to mate. Maeveth had risen several times since reaching maturity, and Yilisa saw nothing unusual about it--until bronze Nuadath, M'kal's lifemate, caught her. What began as a single night of mating-induced passion became a warm relationship as the Weyrleader sought the young dragonhealer out for company on many a night. Having no wish to tie him down, and feeling that a weyrmating might impinge on her duties, though, they didn't make any move to share living space. Not too long after this interesting little development, though, Ceristh took to the skies again. Nuadath joined the chase late, without taking the time to blood, and badly strained his heart, allowing Inuth to catch and T'myn to take M'kal's place as Weyrleader. M'kal sought Yilisa for comfort that night, and shortly afterward decided to move in with her on a temporary basis, since her weyr was next to the infirmary. Not too long after that, though, what Yilisa thought was merely a stomach flu turned out to be the herald of pregnancy. The months of being gravid dragged onward. Ceristh clutched, and it fell to Yilisa, now one of M'kal's assistants rather than the Weyrlingmaster herself, to help with Search--which occasionally proved difficult in her rapidly growing state. Eventually, when Lis was nearing the end of her eighth month of pregnancy, Ceristh's clutch broke shell. Among the Impressees was Jovan, youngest son of the Lord Holder of Boll, who Impressed bronze Rasnauth to become J'van. Only Lis was unsurprised--the two had become firm friends. Shortly after the Hatching, she was confined to bed for the final month of her pregnancy.
It was a dark and stormy night...at Monaco. On the very night that Briana's Zabrenevath took to the skies to choose a new Weyrleader for Monaco Weyr, Yilisa went into labor--without M'kal present, as Nuadath had flown to Monaco to chase. After much pain, she was delivered of a surprise: not one child, but two. The fraternal twins were male and female, the boy having his mother's golden hair and his father's blue eyes, the girl being blessed with black hair and emerald eyes. Named Kayil and Melisa, they kept Yilisa's hands full until she fostered them with a woman of the lower caverns. The twins also had the effect of creating a pseudo-weyrmating between M'kal and Yilisa--they share quarters, but are not necessarily exclusive to each other.
Training of the new weyrlings went on as usual, until one particularly nasty Threadfall over Ruatha Hold. M'kal and Nuadath were surprised by a clump of Thread that descended right on top of them. Unable to blink *between* in time, the duo were seriously scored, Nuadath sustaining a nasty wing injury and M'kal nearly losing the use of his arm. The accident pushed Yilisa back into the Weyrlingmaster's position, and she struggled to get all of the young dragonpairs ready for their own stints in the air.
Maeveth's flights have the general effect of tossing all of Fort Weyr into havoc. If you ask Lis what she thinks, though, she'll tell you that four of Maeveth's many aerial excursions stand out to her: Nuadath's catch, which brought her together with M'kal; brown Geirelth's catch, which produced a surprisingly warm relationship with Monacoan rider A'then; Rasnauth's catch, which just made J'van a happy boy; and Astonth's catch, which deepened the already warmly friendly relationship between herself and Monacoan bluerider E'ner.
Geirelth's catch was one of those things that weyrfolk talk about, but never really believe can happen--Yilisa and A'then had no idea the other even existed until his brown snared Maeveth out of the air. Further to her surprise, though, what started as a simple case of 'I really should know who you are, since I've slept with you' became a relationship as warm and loving as the one she shares with M'kal. A'then is a frequent visitor to Fort Weyr, and surrogate uncle to Kayil and Melisa, whom he adores.
Rasnauth's...well. It's always difficult when one of your weyrlings catches your dragon. It's doubly difficult when one of your best friends since Candidacy has major problems with said weyrling catching your dragon. J'van and Lis had been close since his arrival at Fort. Yilisa was possibly the only person who bothered to listen to the arrogant young man, and somehow they formed a deep, abiding bond of friendship. After J'van's graduation, the relationship became a friend/lover situation, J'van seeking out Lis' company on quite a few nights...and making Nicole, gold Rhiannoth's rider, extremely jealous. Nicole had acquired a strange sort of crush on J'van, but wanted to tie him down, and he refused to be so. So Nicole sniped constantly at Lis, and Lis finally lost her temper. Regardless of her friend's issues, though, J'van and Lis continue to occasionally see each other.
Astonth's catching Maeveth was a new experience for Yilisa in that for the first time, a dragon caught hers out of nothing more than sheerest determination. Astonth had risen to chase Maeveth twice previously, failing both times. Lis and E'ner were close friends, occasionally sharing furs despite E'ner's open preference for his own gender. The first words out of E'ner's mouth after Astonth made his catch sure, though, were 'About time.'
So, life goes on at Fort. Lis spends her time with friends, with her children, or working. Occasionally, though, despite her many friends, all of whom care about her deeply, she finds herself rather lonely. But then someone does or says something to change her mind, and she cheers right up.
All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are copyright(c) Anne McCaffrey 1967,2000, all rights reserved, and used by permission of the author.
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