Politics and Food-Drives (Lesson!)

[Lark]

With the gather, the rumors about both DMW and the RogueWings...not to mention the few and far between stories about what was happening up in ISW, things had been slow and yet busy all at once at RMW. To be honest, the only thing that was certain was that the weyrlings needed to keep learning. At least, that's how Inoria saw it, and with no assistant yet to help her, well things were stressful to say the least.

This should be a good time to teach them about the politics of the other Weyrs don't you think? Maybe soothe any fears as well? I can teach the little ones how to hunt.

Nodding to herself Inoria silently agreed with the sunlance. Call them. Crooning, the pale dragoness fluttered her wings and sent her mind out for her students. Weyrlings come meet Mine and I in the WeyrBowl. They will be sitting in for a lesson while we learn to hunt, it is time to spread your wings again. Her voice was gentle but ever so excited, wanting to convey the happiness that she had for teaching them more than any sort of strict necessity to be a "hard teacher".

They have been flying a bit, hunting is the right move Mine...right? The dragoness tilted her head, starting to become slightly uncertain. After all, riderless flight *or gliding really* had been something. If they were higher up and gliding into the pens, that would work. If not and it proved to be too difficult than normal practice would be fine, or maybe even swimming to strengthen the muscles.

---

They call us SakalasMine. Plorath nudged her rider non-too-gently forward, the growing Sunset hissing at Tikorah as the hawk flew a little too close to them both. We hunt today, I shall excel at this I am certain. Throwing her head back, the dragonet looked over her shoulder at her Iron brother as Z'an and Bigroth joined them in the Weyrbowl. How fare you sister? Well enough to not need be bothered by you today brother.

[Kaya]

Mine, more lessons, Korith informed, unwrapping his tail from his feet and getting up. The Blue let himself have a good stretch, moving his head out from under his wing and flaring them up toward the sky. It felt nice. He had been laying outside, enjoying the day, but it was time to go learn and work again. He was okay with that.

Holt on the other hand was not as keen to get up and moving. The Blue nudged his side and the boy flopped over to his side from his back. "Not yet..." he complained, knowing he couldn't resist getting up much longer. He was still sore from the run he had taken yesterday and he sure hoped that they weren't going to do any more physical training today. His everything was going to start aching next.

Mine, you must get up, Korith insisted. Not wanting the dragonet to hurt himself or him, Holt got up. "Fine." He wasn't that bitter about it. Just sore. So he walked at a rather slow pace to where the weyrlings were gathering.

[summerrain]

TeraMine, lessons.

"Alright, gimme a sec to change."

The girl was maturing quickly. Mentally at least. She was still rather young, but the difference was obvious already. Picosith, the wood dragonet, was also maturing quickly. The dragoness was small, but growing fast.

Hurry Mine, responded the dragonet. I suggest the skirt colored with the juice of the blue fruit and the shirt of the natural color of the material it was made from. Tera came out wearing a white short-sleeved shirt with a long dark blue skirt. She had on a pair of dark brown shoes with open tops.

"I like this too," the girl responded when she felt the affirmation from her mind-mate. "Let's go!" She dashed out toward the Weyrbowl, Picosith gliding alternatively in front of and behind her. "Don't stress your wings too much. You might need them today."

I know that, replied the dragoness. She adjusted her wings to catch the slight tailwind, sending her ahead of the girl. The pair was surprised to reach the WeyrlingMaster ahead of most of the group.

"We're first!" Tera said with a smile. "Looks like we gotta wait for the others, though..." Her smile faded at the thought of having to wait.

[Shoki]

D'ziel sat back on his bed, stroking Pounce absently. The feline was being well behaved, purring into his chest. She was generally well behaved, even before Hocteth. Ever since the hatching, Pounce had become much better at listening to him so that D'ziel didn't have to worry about her leaving the room without him. However, there was a new set of problems. D'ziel glances to the side, at the moonlight who was sitting right next to his bed, waiting. Hocteth's eyes whirled with suspicion at Pounce, but he didn't say anything, only waited.

"You know, you should try to get to know her better."

I know enough and I don't like what I do know. Hocteth huffed, but remained seated. Besides, she's not my pet. She's yours.

"Oh come on. Look, she is nice when she purrs." D'ziel picked up Pounce and placed her next to the dragon. After giving her a scratch under her chin she started up purring again. Hocteth continued looking unimpressed. "Oh come on, you need to get over last time."

She sleeps in my bed!

"I am working on that." D'ziel was earnest but Hocteth didn't change his mood. However he got distracted rather quickly.

Lessons. Brush your hair and we can go. D'ziel sighed but got his hair brushed out quickly and placed Pounce on his bed. He gave the feline a pat before following Hocteth out and to the lessons. As they walked out of the barracks and toward the bowl The pair nearly ran into another pair of weyrlings heading out.

"Sorry, didn't see you." Mau looked a little under the weather but she still had a weak smile on her face.

"No...its fine... Let's get to lessons, yeah?" Mau nodded and followed D'ziel and Hocteth, not willing to keep up with Quimyenth as she sped past the others to get to the bowl first. It wasn't long at all before the two riders and the two dragons arrived at the Bowl, spotting only Ta few other weyrling pairs in the Bowl already.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

I hate fish. I just loath fish. K’tar groaned. He’d never thought of himself as caring about his appearance or how he was thought of, but that was before he started spending all of his free time working with, among other things, dead fish. At that moment, there was not one single piece of fabric in his possession that didn’t smell like fish. It probably didn’t help that he’d flopped on the cot without changing out of his fish gut covered shirt, but he’d been too exhausted to care.

Now, right when he thought he’d finally manage to catch a nap and then do something fun, his time had been co-opted once again.

Mine, Lessons. The dragonet had been much subdued, since his disastrous encounters with the dangerous-things-with-four-feet, wait, no, runner-beasts, they were called runnerbeasts. We’re going to learn how to hunt.

K’tar almost stayed in bed, but the last time he’d skipped lessons because of his punishment, and whose idea was it for that to still be going on, it’s not like a meant to steal a runner and run down Lady Harra, he thought, the Candidate Master had told him that if he did it again, he wouldn’t just be in trouble with the Weyr-based authority, they’d get his father in on it too. He’d laughed, and then been informed that if that wasn’t sufficient, then a copy of the letter just might find its way into Lord Famoran’s hands. Hence, he shoved himself out of bed and started hunting for clean clothes. It was hopeless, and in the end, he simply had to use his, now filthy, sheets to wipe the fish oil off his shirt and follow Viarth out to the WeyrBowl.

Mine, instead of hot-water-burns-nose-make-clean-washing the soft-things-on-sleep-place, you could use them to oil me. Then we could explore more, because less time would be wasted-at-annoying-chores.

That’s not a bad idea, K’tar replied, but I’m not sure that there is enough oil. Also, we’re using a special oil on your hide; I don’t know that fish oil is a good substitute.

K’tar was glad he’d mastered silently replying to Viarth, because that way no one could hear what they said as they joined the group of Weyrlings in the Bowl. He nodded greetings to his fellows, and looked around for Holt, waving when he spotted the other boy.

[Nicole]

Go go go!

Evaine skidded around the room, running a hand through her hair and tossing a quick swish of water around her mouth as she hopped into a decent set of clothes.

I can't believe you let me oversleep.
You were tired.
And now we're late for a lesson!
It is just a lesson.
Chatorth!

The Black whirled his eyes, amused, as his Rider hopped out the door. She had made time to rub him down and made sure it was okay, but she seemed to care infinitley less about herself.

Chatorth wished she would take care of them both equally. He did not need her running herself ragged like she was at the moment.

The two skidded into the Weyrling lessons a few seconds later. Evaine's stomach grumbled loudly to announce their arrival, and she grinned sheepishly at the rest of them. Chatorth curled himself near her, looking at the rest of the Weyrlings.

We are learning to hunt today. Or fly. I like flying.

She rested a hand on the Black's head and stood awkwardly, waiting for somebody to address her first.

[Lark]

Zaranyth crooned happily when she saw some of her students arrive with their riders, though it was not all of them. Some had been lost already for one reason or another, the rest were simply late. For those of you who have shown up on time, you'll get first pick of the evening meal. Isn't that just exciting? Alright, we've been practicing a few easy gliding techniques from the lower weyrledges, and you've been swimming and strengthening muscles in your free time. Now it is time to put your bodies to the test and see how you are all coming along. First I'd like you to do a simple glide down from that ledge there, just as a prep. If you feel like you can keep in the air for a bit longer, than try a few wing flaps even.

She pointed with her pale nose up to a ledge on the lower tiers of the Weyr, a pathway leading to it so that the dragonets could climb there. Stretching her own wings out, the sunlance dragoness gave them one experimental flap before going to a ledge above that, her head craning down to watch the dragonets and prepared to help if she was needed. Among the first to go were the Sunset and Iron dragonets that had arrived early, their riders petting them as a brief goodbye before Plorath and Bigroth sidled beside each other on the couple of lower ledges with the other dragonets and gave their wings a flap.

Bigroth was the first to jump, the Iron sweeping out his broad wings and letting them glide down to the ground again, not trying to be overly adventurous. Plorath behind him took off and instantly set to giving her wings a test flap in the air, her body rising slightly instead of falling down. Zaranyth crooned a laugh though as the young dragoness got cocky and tried to bank around, her wings getting somewhat off their track and her body wobbling as it tumbled down....the Sunlance rising from her spot and catching her as she fell, the size difference still just enough to allow Zaranyth to steady Plorath's body as she hovered, the dragonet wrapped in her arms before the Weyrlingmaster's dragon set the young Sunset on the ground.

Decent, but don't get overly adventurous. We'll work on turning later. I meant flap your wings if you want to try to get further across the 'Bowl.

The chortle was met with a snort and hiss as Plorath stomped over to the side and curled up, waiting for the other dragonets to do their glides. Zaranyth shook her head, nudging Bigroth aside and toward his clutchmate while the dragoness looked back up at the remaining dragonets and warbled for them to follow down on their own time. Don't worry loves, everything will be fine.

---

Inoria bit her lip at the little Sunset, nodding her head when Saka got up for a moment to check on her lifemate, letting the weyrling come back and sit down before she started her own lesson. "Alright, while they are working on gliding and possibly hunting, we'll go over Weyrs and Politics. First, I want you all to name a Weyr somewhere in Pern and say if they're friendly with Rainbowmist or not, and if you know, why." She allowed an easy start, looking at the weyrlings to see who would speak up first.

[Nicole]

With an encouraging look from Evaine, Chatorth waddled his way over to the ledges. Climbing onto it, he glanced around for a second.

Evaine smiled at him before turning her attention back to the Weyrlingmaster. Her unfortunate new habit of listening to everybody's conversations might be coming in handy. "Um... isn't there a new dragon here from Benden? We're friendly with them, right?"

Really, listening wasn't something she should be doing, but if she could hear their conversations like they were yelling, it wasn't a terrible thing. She couldn't exactly help it. And she did like to talk to nice people.

The Weyr was full of nice people.



Chatorth took a deep breath and spread his wings wide, leaping off of the rock and gliding down towards the ground. Feeling brave, he tried a wingflap -- but his enthusiasm to try it overwhelmed his common sense, and, flapping a bit to hard, he unbalanced himself and tumbled to the ground.

Evaine didn't turn around to see if he was okay, trying hard to keep a straight face from laughing.

It's not funny.
Oh, you're fine. I've had worst tumbles.

Chatorth snorted quietly and scurried out of the way of the next Weyrling. Evaine ran a hand through her hand, waiting to here if she was, in fact, correct.

[summerrain]

Picosith looked at Hers, then followed the other dragonet to the ledge. She waited, testing the wind by spreading her wings. She tilted her head to one side, then took a breath. Here goes, she said. She spread her wings wide and jumped. She was caught by a sudden headwind, but allowed instincts to take over as she made a move to backpedal. The wind caught her, sending her toward the ledge she'd jumped from. The wind changed again, and she rode a tailwind to the ground. She was shaking slightly, the near collision frightening her.

Tera was thinking about the question the WeyrlingMaster had asked, but her mind was preoccupied with Picosith's flying lesson. She gasped and turned when she felt the Wood's fear. She was tempted to run over, but what Picosith told her kept her in her spot.

No Tera. I'm fine, Picosith told the girl. Tera nodded slowly, then turned back to the teacher.

"Sorry..." she said quietly. She pulled her knees to her chest, her own frame shaking slightly. She clasped her hands around her knees, laying her chin atop them. She took a few breaths, attempting to calm herself down.

"What about that Aurora from the north?" she asked after she calmed down. "Didn't she Rise recently? And she was caught by that Tiger from a different part of the North. Right?"

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Viarth had mastered gliding, so he thought that a wingflap or two wouldn’t change much. He strolled over to the ledge and pushed off, his wings catching a breeze. His was calmly confident, so the young dragonet was free to focus only on his own surroundings.

“Do we have to name just one?” K’tar asked, smiling. He might not have been much of a willing participant in political discussions, but spending almost half his life in the company of Lord Holders and their advisors, he had learned a decent amount about the subject, and had learned that since the subject effected others, it was worth knowing something about. Before anyone could answer, he continued with: “Benden, bad terms, Rainbow Mists has kind of usurped Benden’s place as the most progressive Weyr. We’re on good terms with Southern Weyr, Waterfall Velley Weyr, and Monaco Bay Weyr, likely because of combining forces often during the last Pass.”

He might have continued, but something caught his attention and he turned, just in time to see Viarth give a startled squeal and start tumbling through the air, wings flailing wildly. The little Purple managed to land, and then looked over at His in confusion.

I don’t understand Mine, I was doing fine, then I flapped a couple times, and then I was spinning and couldn’t stop.

You probably beat harder with one of your wings, K’tar replied. You’re ok? He didn’t think Viarth was hurt, but that landing hadn’t looked comfortable.

Yes, now I must try it again.

K’tar sighed, but he was smiling at the same time. Turning back around, he returned his attention to his classmates’ answers. "I think D'gan's from Fort," he offered, in response to part of Tera's question. "I don't remember where Ayleneth is from though."

[Eirena]

Miiiiine!!!! We are to go hunting for our lessons! Laundcyth was chanting happily in T'po's head, the little purple weyrling bouncing back and forth as she called to him. Laundy was never going to run out of energy. If only she could spare some to T'po!

The new rider was doing his laundry at the moment, the majority of his clothes had just been scrubbed clean and now needed to be laid out to dry so that they wouldn't wrinkle. Laundy was not making it easy work, with her constant fidgeting and coos for attention. Not to mention her attempts at helping, which had torn and ruined two tunics thusfar. Still, T'po didn't have it in him to be cross with her, especially when she was genuinely trying to help!

Come one, we are going to be late! This can be done later, Lessons cannot! she whined. The tone brought a smile to T'po's face. "Oh very well," he said, knowing that she was right. He really shouldn't keep the Weyrlingmaster waiting. It was his job, after all, now that he had Impressed, to be the best weyrling he could be. For Laundy. She deserved the best. You are the best!

T'po laughed, then set out the rest of his clothes to lay evenly on the floor so that they would dry without wrinkles. "All right, let's not be any later than we already are," he said to the still bouncing purple weyrling. Laundy chirped her excitement and bounced alongside him as they made their way to the lesson.

There were already a few other weyrlings there, but at least they weren't the last ones. He smiled to the Weyrlingmaster before taking a seat. They were discussing Weyrs and politics, something that T'po didn't much care for. Still, there was another fellow there who seemed overly knowledgeable on the subject, so T'po wasn't required to answer much. At least not yet. If he was lucky, he wouldn't have to work at all.

Laundy bounced by the ledge until all the other dragonets had taken their turns, then eagerly took her stride, leaping from the ledge and flapping her wings to gain a bit of distance. It wasn't skill that allowed her to do so without falling to the ground, but simply practice. Oh yes, while the others had been mastering gliding, Laundy couldn't contain her energy long enough to keep all her limbs still. She was no master at turning, but when it came to simply moving, Laundy had nearly everyone beat!

Though, her need for movement was still her downfall! After too many air-bounces, her tail began to sway back and forth. And she was bobbing her head, swaying her body mass in too many directions that left the little bundle of energy tumbling through the air until she hit the ground with one shoulder, carefully tucking the wing in before contact. T'po turned his head, though he couldn't see her. You okay love? he thought to her gently.

Laundcyth had, in her attempts, taken many falls. This was just the same as the others, and she bounced right back up onto her feet and looked to the sunlance, I am well! she chirped, tail wagging back and forth excitedly.

[Kaya]

Korith watched cautiously as his siblings went ahead of him. Some did better than others, some could try flapping - which was reportedly harder - and succeed and others...not so much. He realized with a zip of nervousness flooding him that it was his turn to go. He approached the edge slowly, looking how far down it was. He would be okay...surely. He opened his still too clumsy wings and tried to straighten them out methodically before taking off. Painstakingly, he lined up his path with the one he would need in the air. Then finally, after waiting completely still for quite some time, he leapt off the ledge. He tried with increasing alarm to stay balanced. A little too far right, a little too far left, he tried to correct as he tilted in the air. It was nerve-wracking. Then, in a glorious moment, it was over. His claws skid on the ground and he stumbled and tried to pick himself up but just managed to trip over his own feet. His nose hit the rock and a little whine acknowledging the pain slipped out. That hurt.


"I would have thought Waterfall Valley was friendly because Rainbow Mists has lots of historical ties with them," H'rarn said after K'tar. His friend's reason made sense, but surely there was more to each story. There was a reason politics and inter-location relations got the reputation they had. "Not from Telga-?" Holt tried to ask when Korith's nose hit the ground. He winced. That didn't feel good.