Heartwarming / Dragonriders of Pern

• The tale "The Smallest Dragonboy" has Keevan, a boy who is shorter than the other candidates (and is teased about it relentlessly). Keevan's always been a good student during his training sessions, but his size downgrades his chances. To make things worse, one day Keevan is badly injured by his arch rival (and all around Jerkass) Beterli. While he recovers he's assured that he will have other Hatchings. Despite everything, Keevan manages to find his way to the Ground and Impresses a large bronze dragon named Heth.
  • Even more touching in that he'd nearly missed the Hatching because of his injury, and staggers onto the sands to find all the eggs hatched and empty. Then Heth, whose egg Keevan had made a special point of touching, nudges him from behind. The hatchling bronze had refused all the other boys and waited for him.
    • Yet another heartwarming note about it is the fact that even though he said he would be perfectly happy with a green dragon, one of the lowest on the hierarchy. Keevan ends up impressing a bronze dragon, and goes on to become a great leader!
  • Keevan shows up in one of the later novels as a capable Weyrleader, and apparently more than caught up to his peers in physical size.
• In The White Dragon, when Robinton suffers his first heart attack the nearby dragons contact him telepathically and force him to stay awake until medical help arrives, sensing that if he allowed himself to sleep he would die. The dragons know who their friends are, even those who aren't dragonriders.
• Doubles as a tearjerker, but when Robinton dies at the end of All the Weyrs of Pern Tiroth, and all the other dragons, sound the keening that is normally used when a dragon dies. The fact that it is done for someone who was never even a candidate to be a rider really shows how much even the dragons respected him.