Dragonsblood (Dragonriders of Pern)

New York: Del Rey, 2005. Book. Fine. Hardcover. 1st Edition. 9 1/4 h x 6 1/4w. A real nice clean unmarked 438 page first edition (stated) with "1" low in number line. From dust jacket flap: Never in the dramatic history of Pern has there been a more dire emergency than that which faces the young dragonrider Lorana. A mysterious fatal illness is striking dragons. The epidemic is spreading like wildfire and the next deadly cycle of Threadfall is only days away. Somehow, Lorana must find a cure before the dragons including her own beloved Arithsuccumb to the sickness, leaving Pern undefended. The lyrics of an all-but-forgotten song seem to point toward an answer from nearly five hundred years in the past, when Kitti Ping and her daughter Wind Blossom bred the first dragons from their smaller cousins, the fire-lizards. No doubt the first colonists possessed the advanced technology to find the cure for which Lorana seeks, but over the centuries, that knowledge has been lost. Or has it? For in the distant past, an aged Wind Blossom worries that the germs that affect the fire-lizards may one day turn on larger prey and unleash a plague that will destroy the dragons, Pern's only defenders against Thread..