These winged creatures are able to fly, and to breathe fire when they chew firestone, thus being able to burn the Thread as it falls. And they breed creatures from an indigenous lifeform, which they call dragons, because of their similarity to the mythical creatures of Earth. The colonists build accommodation in cave systems, and in buildings made of stone, to protect themselves and their livestock from the Thread. A “Pass” of the Red Star lasts for 50 years, with Thread falling periodically during this time. It devours any organic matter – plants, animals and humans, and even the carbon-based plastics that the early settlers use. But when it does, a “mycorrhizoid” spore lifeform crosses space from the Red Star to Pern, and rains down from the sky as threadlike filaments. Its erratic orbit only brings it close to Pern every 250 years. However, they don’t realise until a few years later the hazard caused by a rogue planet, the Red Star, in their solar system. Anne McCaffrey’s “Dragonriders of Pern” series is a science fiction series (but with something of the flavour of a fantasy series) describing the lives of humans and dragons on the planet Pern.
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