The Lord Holders continue to request an expedition to the Red Star, and Robinton and Masterweaver Zurg have draughtsmen sketching every surface of it — in addition to this, Meron is constantly at Fort Weyr, in an attempt to find co-ordinates for dragonriders to use.

Unexpectedly, Prideth rises to mate near Nabol Hold, and Wirenth attacks her in anger as F'nor gets Canth to rouse Ramoth and the other queens to intervene. After offering them some help in training the fire lizards, F'lar leaves the Lord Holders and Craftmasters to share them between one another.D'ram, the Ista Weyrleader, later takes over the meeting and states that T'reb was justified in his attempt to take the knife, as the tithes to the Weyrs do not reflect the increased productivity of Pern that came about as the result of the Second Long Interval allowing for expansion — and thus Terry caused the problem by not gifting him the knife.

F'lar then states they will use the distance-viewer at Fort Weyr first to find some good jumping co-ordinates for the dragons, and then they will send a group to explore. At Benden Weyr, Brekke talks with F'nor about Larad, noting that the grubs are the solution: a trip to the Red Star isn't. Wondering if the grubs are a southern equivalent of the sandworms in Igen that eat Thread, F'lar gets Mnementh to take him back in time to the beginning of the Fall to watch, before grabbing a handful and travelling to Masterherdsman Sograny in Keroon, where he asks about fire lizards, but can get no information from the man, who rejects many of the theories F'lar tells him about their relation to dragons.That being said this scene is nothing short of nasty, particularly with how the nice-natured and apparently well intentioned F’nor suddenly won’t take no for an answer. As they go to leave, Robinton suggests Kylara remain in the watchtower to prevent her fire lizard from becoming alarmed by the crowds, and offers to have an apprentice bring her food. When he asks why she let others assume that, Brekke reveals that she has loved F'nor ever since she first saw him, but became heartbroken once she discovered that bronzes, not browns, fly queens. Sentences with confused subjects, patchy use of description and uneven changes in view all make the first half of Dragonquest feel rather slower than it should have done.

D'ram notes that times have changed, even if he doesn't like it, and that he and the other Oldtimers were scared at how big Pern had become. Though it does not exactly finish in a final sense, the ending does make it clear that there is a long road ahead and that it won’t be an easy one. Each monster has also the additional information if they are recruitable or not, using the moniker Unrecruitable if they're the latter, while using the more broad Easy to recruit, Occasionally recruitable, and Hard to recruit terms to define their tameable chances, instead of more specific odds (both a 1/2 and a 1/4 chances are considered Easy, both 1/16 and 1/32 are Occasional, both 1/64 and the very low 1/256 are considered Hard). When evil Winston the wig-wearing Wizard casts a spell to make everyone's hair fall out something must be done. When Meron responds rudely to Lessa, Fandarel forcibly removes him, and lets Lessa take his place at the distance-viewer, followed by Sangel and Lord Oterel of Tillek Hold.

F'nor leaves to get a hearthpan to catch Thread in, and realises he hasn't managed to discuss with F'lar the possibility of Canth flying Wirenth in her upcoming mating flight, which he thinks should be fine given that the dragons are already large enough that one mating flight with a smaller dragon shouldn't affect the breed. Seeing the others watching him in awe, F'lar asks if they support Benden Weyr; the Craftmasters and Lord Holders shout their assertions, along with D'ram, G'narish and T'bor. Some riders should have been crafters or farmers — or — nothing, but they were acceptable to dragons on Hatching. After talking about details of the Fall, F'lar brings up the Threadfall variations, and notes that they must change from the traditional vigil lengths. The Girl's Own Annual is found in the Quester's Rest bookshelf, and is used to bring Jessica back to normal at Chateau Felix.