Wind Blossom was a geneticist and one of the original colonists of Pern.
Biography[]
Wind Blossom was one of two known daughters of Kitti Ping. She was raised for the majority of her life prior to coming to Pern on Tau Ceti (also known as First Centauri), where she idolized Governor Emily Boll. Emily was always kind and encouraging towards her when Wind Blossom’s very famous, busy, and strict mother was not. At some point she received training in the Eridani techniques of genetic manipulation from her mother, as did her sister.
When her mother decided to join the colonization of Pern, Wind Blossom accompanied her, leaving behind her sister on Tau Ceti as part of the Eridani precept that a member of the family responsible for manipulation of the genetic environment must remain with that environment to monitor their work for as long as the bloodline survives. The two women intended to do minor genetic engineering to help Terran flora and fauna thrive on Pern, though they had permission to perform more drastic manipulation if necessary.
Following the first Threadfalls, Wind Blossom and her mother aided the colony biologists in analyzing the destructive organism, hoping their specialized training would help. Wind Blossom served tea to her mother and the leadership of Landing when they approached Kitti to ask her to try and genetically engineer large, rideable dragons from the native fire-lizards. Kitti agreed to the proposition, stating that even if she failed or died before she created the dragons, Wind Blossom could take her place. The two women worked hard and monopolized many of the colony's biologists and veterinarians in their project. Unfortunately, shortly after completing the last of the original 27 dragon eggs, Kitti died while working at her microscope. Wind Blossom discovered her body and was overcome with grief.
After her mother's passing, Wind Blossom took over the project. She became very arrogant about her position and expertise, to the annoyance of many of who worked with her, particularly since most did not believe she was nearly as competent as her mother. She regularly complained about the relatively primitive conditions in which she was required to work. When Ted Tubberman began agitating for the colonists to do more to defend themselves, Wind Blossom had him banned from the biology labs, where he had been trying to usurp her authority. However, when he shot off a homemade distress capsule, Wind Blossom expressed relief to Bay Harkenon that he had created an alternative to the dragons. She believed it removed the weight of blame from herself and the team if they failed, since prior to the launch they had been «putting all their eggs in one basket.» At some point following this, Wind Blossom purposely let Tubberman steal the materials to engineer the grubs and the felines, as both she and her mother agreed that it was unconscionable to let the Pernese rely only on their own work and that there must be others who made their own unique attempts at defense.
Wind Blossom was present for the first hatching of the dragons, appearing to be very anxious about the results. She remained largely stiff and motionless for the extent of the hatching. Following the hatching, she, Bay, and Pol Nietro examined the eggs that failed to hatch. While Bay and Pol were enthusiastic and hopeful about the surviving hatchlings, Wind Blossom was somewhat more pessimistic, unsure whether the young dragons would live or be able to perform their duties and decided to continue her attempts to create more dragons.
Wind Blossom soon developed the watch-whers, the photosensitive «cousins» of the dragons and what many believed to be incorrect coding by Wind Blossom. Very few knew or came to realize that many of the “failures“ of the watch-whers (such as their significant genetic difference to dragons, their temperaments and physical deformities, and the many abortive eggs in her first attempts) were specifically engineered by Wind Blossom and the late Kitti Ping. Dragons and their riders had neither the time nor the physical capabilities to safely fight the rare nightime threadfalls, as neither could see well at night. Watch-whers were meant to take their place without needing riders to guide them and to do so without the knowledge of most of the colonists so that they would not panic. Their “failures” made the populace dismiss them as being irrelevant to the fight against Thread, instead using them as guard animals and beasts of burden. This had an additional psychological effect: watch-whers were seen as ugly dragons that many people were exposed regularly, ensuring that non-dragonriders never developed an overwhelming cultural fear of dragons (who were by necessity isolated in their weyrs away from the general populace) due to not being exposed to them.
Wind Blossom remained involved with the dragons and their riders, though appeared largely dismissive of their successes, alienating Sean and Sorka as well as Bay and Pol, though Sorka did her best to maintain a professional relationship.
When Mount Garben erupted, forcing the evacuation of Landing, Wind Blossom and her remaining team brought the watch-whers and another batch of experimental watch-wher eggs with them. At some point during the Second Crossing, some action of hers caused a significant amount of valuable cargo to be lost. She remained arrogant upon arrival in the Northern Continent, becoming quite obstinate when Paul Benden made the decision to end her project and reassign her staff. She insisted that she speak with Emily Boll, unaware that her friend had been seriously injured in a sled crash. She refused to leave her quarters for an extended period. However, this attitude quickly disappeared upon realizing she had become a pariah for her behavior and the loss of supplies. At the suggestion of Benden, Wind Blossom began training with the doctors of Fort Hold, becoming skilled enough to be acknowledged as a general practitioner. She maintained detailed records of the hatchings and growth of all dragons to make sure there were no genetic defects, doing the same for the watch-whers and providing advice about them to those who asked.
When a deadly fever struck in the year 16 AL, Wind Blossom was one of many doctors who were overwhelmed by the amount of patients that they had to care for. Before the disease even reached its peak, it had killed more than a sixth of all the humans on Pern, resulting in mass burials and the few remaining doctors being responsible for around 300 patients each. Wind Blossom went for weeks with only short naps taken when she could take them. She personally administered care to Emily Boll, though they both knew that Emily would not survive the disease. She and Emily talked often during this time, and Wind Blossom admitted that she had secretly dosed some of the dragon riders with Eridani immune boosters so that at least some would survive, which Emily approved of. Emily then insisted that Wind Blossom perform an autopsy on her when she died. While Wind Blossom was reluctant to do so, she agreed, and Emily stopped taking the precious and dwindling amount of painkiller medications, instead taking the experimental fellis dosings. She eventually fell into a coma and died, much to the grief of Wind Blossom. She told Emily's husband Pierre de Courci about how she had first met the governor and had him bring Emily's body to the College (the predecessor of the Harper and Healer Halls).
Emily's autopsy allowed Wind Blossom to identify the bacteria causing the disease and develop a cure. However, nine in ten doctors had been killed by the disease and few had the training to deal with the specific kind of illness (caused by an inevitable crossing between Pernese and Terran bacteria, which meant that developing a natural immune response in time would be nearly impossible) even before they had been killed off. As such, Wind Blossom and Paul Benden decided that the cure was to be secretly given to the survivors along with previous treatments, leading them to believe that they had developed a natural immunity.
After the Fever Year passed, Sorka reached out to Wind Blossom after receiving a posthumous request from Emily Boll to befriend her. While they originally remained rather stiff with each other, they did eventually develop a deep friendship. When Wind Blossom finally had a child sometime later, she named her daughter Emorra, a Pernese combination of Emily and Sorka. Sorka and Pierre were Emorra's godparents. Emorra’s relationship with her mother was strained at the best of times, but like her mother (and grandmother), Emorra became a geneticist. Wind Blossom tried to subtly drive her away from the field after sufficiently training her, both to keep her from despairing too much at the loss of the technology that would eventually make the profession useless and to encourage her daughter not to slavishly follow the established thoughts and patterns of those who came before (namely, the rules of the Eridani). This was similar to what Wind Blossom's own mother had done to her. The attempt was only partially successful, as Emorra eventually became Head Medic and the Dean of the College.
In 50 AL, after a watch-wher mauled the son of Peter Tubberman (known as Purman), Wind Blossom saved the boy's life. To do so, she used the last of the surgical sutures brought from Earth and then donated a large amount of her own blood, passing out while doing so. When she awoke, Purman was there. She attempted to discover his father's intent for his felines, but Purman did not know. She and M'Hall then explained the intent for the watch-whers, as well as their fears of a draconic disease. She asked that Purman's son Tieran stay at the College so that he could recover. She also planned to teach him more of genetics so that he qualified as one of the three bloodlines who must monitor any genetic manipulations through the generations as per Eridani laws.
In 56 AL, Purman was killed in a rockslide, and 16-year-old Tieran smashed several glass cabinets in Wind Blossom's room trying to find the last antibiotics so he could use a dragon to go between times and save his father. Wind Blossom told him that was impossible, and he became even more upset. Wind Blossom failed to console him (or rather, succeeded in pushing him away) and he fled. She then similarly alienated her daughter. By this time, she had also developed a dislike for singers and the decision to attempt to preserve information through oral traditions rather than the time-consuming and material-costly process of bookbinding.
By 58 AL, many of the older members of the population were dying earlier than they would have on Earth, and Wind Blossom herself had begun showing signs of senile dementia, losing her short term memory. This distressed her, as she was trying to teach herself facial reconstruction surgery so she could repair Tieran's face. However, she and the healer Janir decide that the priority of the healers must be on increasing fertility and decreasing infant mortality rates rather than curing the elderly and extending lifespans. Wind Blossom lamented that most people were buried before the healer's heard of their death, so there could be no autopsy. Sorka then summoned Wind Blossom to her death bed, as she was dying of old age. Having heard of Wind Blossom's problems, Sorka requests that when she dies Wind Blossom perform an autopsy on her. Wind Blossom and Sorka's children objected strenuously, but agreed when she insisted. Wind Blossom stays with her until she dies, then arranges her body so that her children and the weyrfolk could pay their respects. M'hall then conveyed them back to the College, although due to timing it, they arrived before they had actually left, and the strain of being so near to herself in time caused Wind Blossom to pass out.
When Wind Blossom awoke, she insisted on trying to perform the autopsy. However, while she was able to take a small sample of brain tissue, she was unable to handle the emotional distress of cutting open her friend. Emorra tried to comfort her, but was interrupted by an emergency drum message from Tieran summoning Wind Blossom. When they arrived at the drum tower, Tieran explained that two fire-lizards fell from the sky, one dying on impact. They were both very clearly sick and he insisted that Wind Blossom administer antibiotics to the survivor. Wind Blossom informed him that it might not work, and even if it did, it would use the last of the antibiotics she had been saving for his facial surgery. While he hesitated, he still insisted that the fire lizard be saved.
Wind Blossom acquiesced, and she, Tieran, Emorra, and the drummer Kassa (who had been on watch with Tieran when the fire lizards fell) were quarantined in a tent at the base of the drum tower. The use of the antibiotics successfully healed the fire lizard, but Wind Blossom was unable to do more to identify the cause of the disease due to the lack of technology and trained assistance. All the quarantined people suffer from extremely vivid dreams of dragons being in danger. Wind Blossom insists that Janir acquire large amounts of nitric acid to rapidly destroy the bodies of any other infected dragons or fire lizards in an emergency.
Wind Blossom and the staff of the College tried to analyze the disease, but without active patients or samples there was little they could do beyond speculate. They eventually realized that Grenn, the surviving fire lizard, had a beaded harness that was extremely unlikely to exist in the current time period, as beads were not something that had brought north by the people fleeing landing and no one had begun making them in any of the new settlements. They considered that Grenn may have come from the future, having traveled between times in his distress. Wind Blossom consulted with M'hall to determine if this was possible, and they reluctantly agreed that it was. He then questioned her about her health and what should happen if she died. She explained that Emorra and Tieran were her successors by Eridani tradition, though she would have prefered that the entirety of Pern take up that mantle rather than to place it on the two of them alone. Seeing the strain she is under, M'hall offered to take her on a vacation to someplace warm. To the surprise of everyone, Wind Blossom accepted.
Instead of going to a warm and relaxing place, Wind Blossom asked to go to the wintry Tillek Hold. There she met Holder Malon, who informed her that her requests for materials and a shelter on the beach had been provided. She thanked him, but was distressed to discover that the hold had chained up their green watch-wher Tilsk for disappearing at night, not knowing that she had been fighting Thread and believing she had been causing trouble. When Wind Blossom revealed the truth, Malon was horrified and promised to release Tilsk after she had been retrained. Wind Blossom and M'hall worried about a future where all watch-whers are chained because no one knew their true purpose, but still believed it better not to distress the general populace.
Wind Blossom retreated to her beach shelter and constructs a dolphin pylon, summoning the local pod after several days. They recovered some of the supplies lost during the Second Crossing, namely Eridani technology that allowed for the viewing and mapping of genetic material. She hoped that these would allow her (or possibly those with infected dragons in the future) to create an effective cure.
Some time later, an infected queen dragon came out of between above the College and fatally crashed into the courtyard. Wind Blossom immediately commanded that the body to be destroyed with agenothree in fear that the plague will spread. Tieran quickly removed a buckle from the dead queen's harness, hoping to be able to identify her rider. He determined that though the queen was likely less than six months old, she was much larger than any modern queen of that age. This meant that she likely came from the thirtieth generation of dragons or later, somewhere around 400 years in the future. Her harness mark also matched those on Grenn's beadwork harness.
Wind Blossom and the College call a meeting of Holders and Weyrleaders to come up with a plan. They decide that the only possibility is to leave the means to save the dragons for those in the future, as they themselves don't know enough about the disease. Traveling to the future was not possible, both due to the danger of timing it to an unknown location and the fact that the journey would have to be one way to avoid bringing the plague back, which would require bringing everything possibly necessary the first time or risk failing. Wind Blossom also did not believe that she would survive an extended trip between or the resulting physical strain of being in another time. They made plans to create training rooms in Benden Weyr (since the future queen was from Benden), and despite resistance from Lord Holder Mendin of Fort Hold, they received approval from the conclave.
While Emorra and Tieran work to create a teaching program for the future, Wind Blossom attempts to provide as much information about the cure as possible. Unfortunately, the Eridani technology could not store all the required information, as there were just too many possibilities involved if they don't know how the disease is spread. Wind Blossom was devastated and had to be taken to her rooms after collapsing.
Following this dissapointment, Wind Blossom's health declines, though she continues working. A few nights (and several hundred years later) later, Lorana accidentally contacted Wind Blossom from the future when she tried to save hundreds of dragons who went between without clear coordinates, dooming them to be lost. Using the combined psychic power of several weyrs-worth of dragons, Lorana had reached across between to Wind Blossm's time, and both recognized that they were working to the same goal. Lorana informed Wind Blossom that the disease had an airborne transmission vector. Wind Blossom screamed this out to Tieran and Emorra, who had come to check on her. Sadly, the strain of the contact pushed her body past its, and she died minutes later after begging Emorra to write a teaching ballad so that the future dragon riders wouldn't forget. She died happy that this would pass the burden of guarding the dragons away from Emorra and Tieran, instead tasking all of Pern. She was 81 years old when she died and the last original colonist.
Legacy[]
The information Wind Blossom passed on allowed Tieran and Emorra to reduce the genetic mapping needed for a cure so that the Eridani technology could be left in the teaching rooms, as well as providing a password ("air") for the inner doors so that they wouldn't enter the inner rooms before the were ready and accidentally damage the necessary technology. She had previously recorded a brief voice message to her future students as an introduction to their research into the cure, which was placed in the teaching rooms. Emorra wrote the necessary teaching ballad and entitled it "Wind Blossom's Song", though the song had largely faded into obscurity by the Third Pass. Ironically, while Wind Blossom had hoped to avoid binding her bloodline to the care of the dragons as the Eridani edicts insisted, her many-times-great-grandaughter Lorana was the one who developed the cure that saved them in the Third Pass after her contact with her ancestor through between.
Personality and traits[]
Wind Blossom had dark hair and dark eyes, even in older age. Her skin has a yellowish tinge and her eyes an almond shape, reflecting her Asian heritage.
Appearances[]
- Dragonsdawn
- Dragon's Kin (mention)
- Dragonsblood
- Dragongirl (mention)
Notes[]
- Wind Blossom was called the daughter of Kitti Ping Yung in the UK edition of Dragonsdawn and both the UK and US editions of Dragonsblood, but was referred to as her granddaughter in the US edition of Dragonsdawn. In Dragonsblood Wind Blossom is said to be 79 years of age in 56 AL (during the First Pass). This means she would have been biologically 23 or 24 years old (having been in cryosleep for the 15 year journey) upon arriving on Pern. As Kitti Ping Yung was already in her tenth decade by the time of the First Fall, this would mean Kitti gave birth to Wind Blossom while in her late 70s at the very least. While speaking with the dying Emily Boll during the Fever Year, Wind Blossom was questioned about her own age and how old her mother was when she gave birth, and she confirmed that Eridani genetic manipulation had been performed that slowed the aging process and its detrimental effects on Kitti Ping. Wind Blossom either had the same techniques performed on herself or inherited them naturally, living much longer than her contemporaries in the colony. It is likely that the reference to Kitti as her grandmother was an editing error in the US edition of Dragonsdawn.
- Also called Wind Blossom Ping.