Firestone
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WHAT IS IT?
Firestone is the phosphine-bearing rock found about Pern which is used by dragons and firelizards to create their flame. This irregular chunk of grey carbonate, crystalline silicate and phosphine is usually found in volcanic regions, sometimes on the surface and sometimes buried deeply below the ground.
Firestone quality is based on two factors: purity and grade. Purity is measured by the phosphine content. A general rule of thumb is that the darker red the sample of stone, the higher the phosphine content of firestone. Grade is measured by consistency. Shinier firestone usually indicates a higher concentration of firestone while more dull firestone is simply not as condensed and contains more carbonate and silicate and therefore is not as powerful.
CHOOSING FIRESTONE
When mining firestone, the best strategy is to create a large crack around the firestone to be dug out. Since firestone is brittle, trying to create a crack and let a large chunk fall out is the best way. Picking at a vein of firestone will merely reduce it to useless rubble. Once a chunk is broken out of a vein, it can now be smashed up to smaller, edible pieces.
Freshly mined, firestone has the consistency and density about that of coal, so it crumbles easily and is relatively easy to break up. It should therefore be handled somewhat gently, else it will be reduced to grit or sand before it can be delivered to a dragonrider. When you select stone to be sacked for flight, the pieces should be medium-sized. The chunks of firestone should be smashed so that they will fit well enough in a dragon's mouth, but not be so small that dozens of rocks must be fed to the dragon before it can be effective. Discard stone with large amounts of silicate as this is very hard to chew.
SACK-THROWING
When you fill your sack, bear in mind that they will be thrown from one dragon to another. Weyrlings are expected to help pass sacks down the supply lines, handing sacks from one weyrling to another until the sack is handed up to an older rider on a supply dragon. The older rider will fly into the air and toss sacks to fighting dragons during thread drills.
Weyrlings are also expected to practice sack tossing and catching and to become proficient at it. The importance of this cannot be over stressed. When you first make your sacks, the weyrlingmaster will have you practise close together, and this distance will increase until you are eventually standing a dragon length apart. Once you are able to mount, you will practice sack tossing while sitting on your dragon during ground drills. Eventually, you will be tossing sacks back and forth in the air during flight.
FLAMING
When your dragon is full grown, you will start feeding him/her what we call soft rock (not firestone) to teach your dragon how to chew the rock and get it into his/her second stomach. This will be done from both the standing (unmounted) position and from the mounted position (in flight and on the ground). It is important not to overfeed the dragon, but the dragon will know when he/she is full and ready to flame.
The actual firestone is almost all consumed during the flaming process. The phosphorus within the rock mixes with stomach acids and produces phosphine gas, which bursts into flame upon the dragon belching it into the air. A little 'ash' is left behind in the dragon's stomach and it must be eventually regurgitated, hopefully someplace away from people. It stinks.
