Sex Ed with Shmee

[Administrator]

Shmee sat down on their couch, snuggling up with Miguel as the fireplace blazed. It was a bitter, rainy day in Selenitas, and it was so cozy sitting, under some furs, with squirmy little Miguel, by the fireside. However, despite these warm comforts, she was ill at ease. A part of her was still scared out of her wits by the events that took place at Threadfall, particularly the loss of the weyrlings... She never like Paryal. One could say she even hated her. But nevertheless, the loss of a strong member of their society was a hard one. Perhaps it was this reason that Shmee had suddenly become over-protective of Kaegan. The Weyrwoman always made sure to drop in on her for a visit at least once a day, even if just to say "Hi." It was almost as though Shmee were attempting a motherly, or even a sisterly, kind of role for the Weyr's remaining queenrider, especially when S'rei wasn't around. Like now, for instance.

Well, even so, she had arranged this meeting with Kaegan to discuss Millieth's... situation. She was going to Fly soon, and Shmee needed to go through the facts with the girl. Give her some tips, give her the necessary information... And perhaps advice to let this not be the first experience. She remembered her first (and only) Flight, and she couldn't imagine how hard it would've been if she had been chaste. But at least something good had come out of it... She smiled. That was when she and S'rei came together romantically. That was also what she had to emphasize: that above all, a Flight could be the best thing that could happen to a rider. It would definitely be that way for the queen, but it would be even better if Kaegan got to share that experience.

Miguel yawned, cuddling deeper against Shmee as she looked out onto the weyrledge, where Aslath lay under the above, built-in roof to protect herself from the pouring rain. Shmee pulled the babe closer against her, making the little boy snuggle against her in even more sleepy pleasure. He was so sweet, and she felt like she could melt in his trusting little circle. She loved him, appreciating him on days like this especially. She was marveled at how even through the troubles Selenitas was going through, he was still as peaceful as he always was. Yawning, she sunk deeper into her couch. She was kind of sleepy herself. Hopefully, Kaegan would get here before she drifted off.

Forcing her lids open, she straightened up slightly, firmly readjusting the furs around Miguel's torso as well as her own body. Hopefully, Kaegan wouldn't be nervous about this talk. It could be rather awkward, she assumed. She just needed, however, to make sure that Kaegan understood this information. After all, Shmee wouldn't be here for the actual Flight... a seldom-remembered rule about queenriding, but they would have to if they wanted Selenitas to keep both of the queens they still had.

[Tashe]

If anyone could look as if they had just fallen into the river, the young Queen rider would take first place, she was entirely drenched from head to toe. Normally vibrant red hair had turned dark and had plastered itself to her head, as did the rest of her soaked attire. Kaegan had to have been in the rain for over an hour, which effectively made keeping track of time a difficult challenge for the Queenrider. The rain was a sort of sanctuary for the young woman, it was one of the few things that had kept her sane over at her old Weyr. Benden had put her through nightmares that couldn't be fully understood unless someone had gone through the same thing. Although because of the combined efforts of her new Weyrwoman and a few others from around Selenitas, Kaegan had come farther out off her shell than would have been expected from the looks of her previous state of mind.

A kind of Human silence had fallen upon the Weyr as the rain beat down steadily, and the sounds of Humanity were replaced by those of Nature and its inhabitants. Kaegan was content to stay on the ledge of her landing space and listen, but a voice interrupted her thoughts like a wild fire. /KAEGANMINE! You are late!/ Pausing for a second to remove her face from the rain and wipe it off with a towel, the Queenrider responded with a tinge of confusion. 'Late for... what exactly?' /YOUR MEETING WITH SHMEE YOU DI---/

"Shardit!" Everything that had been wiped away by the rain came rushing back to her in an instant, she was going to be late for her meeting with the Senior Weyrwoman. Slipping and scrambling over the distance between the edge of her landing platform and the beginning of her Weyr, Kaegan was successful in scraping both her knee and elbow in her haste. Ignoring the sharp pains that were emitted from both of the injured joints, the Goldrider quickly shed her wet clothing and darted about to find a new, clean change. Literally tossing her clothes halfway across the room, Kaegan decided to pick he next thing she drew out from her wardrobe. Sticking her hand into the dresser and grasping a piece of fabric, she brought it out with a flourish before stuffing the dress over her head. Smoothing out the large folds of the brown dress with a vengeance before fleeing out the door without a bother to dry her soaking hair.

Scampering out the archway and almost tripping again, Kaegan quickly scampered down the cold hallway and followed the path she needed to to get to Shmee and S'rei's personal weyr. Using the slick stones to slide her to a stop in front of the Weyrwoman's entrance, the young woman coughed slightly before wondering slowly into the tunnel, only then becoming aware of her wet hair and body despite the dry, long sleeved dress she had thrown on. Her knee and elbow were hurting quite a bit also....

[Administrator]

Shmee looked up, startled, to see the other queenrider looking like a complete mess. She frowned. "What happened?" she asked with a frown, standing up slowly so as to not wake Miguel. She looked Kaegan over-- the dress may have been dry, but the girl was soaked. Looking to the second couch, Shmee seized up the fur that was strewn across it with the arm that wasn't holding Miguel against her. Somehow managing to fix it over Kaegan's shoulders, she gestured for her to sit next to the fireplace. "You all right?" she asked timidly, flopping back onto her own couch. "You should wear more when it's raining," she told the girl sagely. Wrapping herself in the furs again, she rubbed Miguel's back absently. "You don't want to be sick for your first Flight, do you?" There! Shmee was proud of her transition into the topic at hand. Smiling to herself, she gave Kaegan a kind look before giving her yet another once-over. Yes, she truly was feeling very protective over her. The poor treatment in Benden, and now the fate of what had happened to the weyrlings... Life was too short, and she wanted to protect her from the things she herself had been through.

Suddenly, she stood again. "Hold on," she stated, wandering over to the bathing room. Picking up a towel and a comb, she brought them back, Miguel not even having done more than twitch in his deep sleep. Settling down beside Kaegan, she absent-mindedly began drying her hair. She didn't feel the need to ask for permission; she knew it would be a 'no,' but Shmee felt as though she needed to comfort the girl somehow, even if she didn't want it at first. Or, if it didn't comfort Kaegan, it would give Shmee some peace of mind. Since her arrival over a turn ago, she hadn't been the most caring person toward her. But so many things had changed, and she regretted not getting to know her as well. And with Paryal now gone... "So, speaking of Flights," she said casually, gently rubbing Kaegan's scalp to dry it, "I don't think Benden would have instructed you on this sort of thing, correct?" No, of course they hadn't. Benden didn't do much for even the queenriders. Going on, she added, "Well, I'll be teaching you about it today. S'rei shouldn't be here, so it won't be as awkward for you. Well, it might still be awkward, but it would be a whole lot worse with a man around." She chuckled slightly. Actually, she didn't mind talking about sex with S'rei... but onto other things.

"So, before I talk about the more intimate stuff, I'll go over the basics," she told her cheerfully. "I won't be here when Millieth Rises- Aslath and I will take a brief vacation to Blossom, and I'm going to try and convince S'rei to come along. This is because when Millieth is glowing, she's going to want every male she sees. And, of course, Aslath thinks all the males belong to her. So if Millieth Rises when Aslath is here, both of them will feel threatened, and they will fight to the death over the bronzes." Fortunately, Shmee had never seen it happen. Even the Northern Weyrs were careful about it. They didn't want to risk losing anything that could clutch fighting dragons for them.

"Anyway," she continued, letting the towel drape around Kaegan's shoulder, adjusting the hair above it. "I can assign someone to help you remember these instructions, considering they're difficult to remember in the middle of Flightlust." Picking up the comb, Shmee proceeded to comb out her red hair, gentle and firm. Having had long hair herself all that time ago, Shmee could slip right into her comfort zone when it came to hair. All she needed to get used to was Kaegan's texture, but Shmee was good with hair. "What will happen is that Millieth will wake up from a deep sleep. You may be extremely moody the sevenday before Millieth Rises, which is normal. I actually punched S'rei during that time." She smiled sheepishly at the memory. "But it will all climax the moment Millieth wakes up. She won't even be able to communicate with words to you, but you will know that she's Rising. You'll have an... insatiable thirst for blood. So, let Millieth go the the herdbeasts, but the most important thing to remember is that she is not to eat them. Repeat after me: Blood only.[/b]"[/size]

[Tashe]

"I'm sorry Miss Shmee, I lost track of the time, I didn't mean to be late." Slightly surprised as the older Weyrwoman slung the extra fur over her shoulders, Kaegan obediently sat down near the fireplace. "I'm fine... and I did. Although I changed out of my wet clothing before coming over here, I didn't want to track water all over your Weyr." Pausing for a minute to absent mindedly rub her smarting knee, the soaked teen shook her head slowly at Shmee's comment on being sick for Millieth's flight. Although if it could at all prevent her from getting to the flight arena... quickly loosing her train of thought as her mentor stood up once more. Watching as Shmee made her way over to the bathroom, Kaegan busied herself in burrowing farther into the furs she had been given, clearly enjoying the warmth that the fireplace gave off. Looking up from her lap as the Weyrwoman returned carrying not only her foster child but a towel and a brush, the younger woman of the two instinctively reached up to accept the items. Although once again Shmee surprised her by sitting down and beginning to dry her wet hair, this action caused a protest from Kaegan. "You don't ha---" Her complaint was Silenced by Shmee starting to speak again, not giving the junior goldrider a chance to finish her complaint. What the Weyrwoman had said was true, Benden had not taught her anything about Flights, so most things in that area were in the dark or either completely wrong.

Smiling sheepishly as Shmee brought up the fact that the Weyrleader wouldn't be there, Kaegan continued to quietly listen to her speak while her mind processed the information. The young woman was glad that she had someone to teach her the correct way to deal with flights, although the Weyrwoman had become increasingly friendly over the last few weeks. Not that Kaegan minded Shmee stopping in to say hello every day, she had just found it odd that the woman had just suddenly began doing it. Now a days the Weyrwoman seemed protective over her, something had changed about her personality that hadn't been there when the girl arrived from Benden. Adjusting the furs around her legs a bit more, Kaegan nodded as Shmee began to speak about them leaving for Millieth's flight. It was logical that the Senior Goldpair, S'rei and Salenth would leave when her Gold rose, and for the very reasons that the Weyrwoman listed too. She would rather not have the two golds fight to the death, she really wouldn't.

Feeling Shmee stop drying her hair and continue on to brushing it, Kaegan was suddenly reminded of her sister back at her old home. Anara had done the exact same thing on rainy days when the goldrider had snuck out to play in the rain, they had been close and it was often said they should have been twins. Turning her head to the fire, Kaegan watched it dance for a minute before returning her attention back to Shmee. Smiling as she tuned in when the woman was talking bout her punching the Weyrleader, the teen silently listen to the rest of her speech. "Blood only."

[Administrator]

Shmee chuckled. "Don't apologize," she said firmly. "I never was great at remembering things, either." It was kind of cute how polite she was. Shmee had never been this courteous to Sera. Then again, Sera had hated her. She had always complained how Shmee was so immature, and how her own daughter would've been a much better queenrider, which was probably true, in a way. From the day she was born, the Weyrwoman's daughter had been raised on the idea that she would become the next Weyrwoman of Selenitas. But Shmee had a feeling that if it was that ninny who had Impressed Aslath, then things would probably be a lot worse today. Shrugging off Kaegan's initial protest, Shmee didn't even hesitate in continuing with what she was doing with her hair. She doubted Kaegan had many people in her life for the longest time who would do this sort of thing with her.

"You need to make sure that you're firm with Millieth," she told Kaegan firmly, brushing the wet, red locks. "If you say it that calmly, she will not listen. Scream it if you have to-- the slightest sign of weakness, and she won't listen to you at all, and the clutch will suffer. So do not let her eat. The food would weigh her down, but blood gives her energy. Understand?" She smiled at Kaegan, her hands and comb moving to the other side of her head. Miguel, waking up, looked over from Shmee's lap and yawned.

"Say?" he asked sleepily. "Me?" Shmee paused in brushing out Kaegan's hair, looking down tenderly at Miguel. Lately, he had come to calling S'rei, "Say" and Shmee, "Me," which she found utterly adorable, while Laurie got the full "Ma." It was odd, how he was catching on so fast. She had been worried for a time if S'rei would be "Da," but fortunately, he had been hearing Shmee call him "S'rei" whereas "Da" was a foreign word to him. And he got time enough with his mother enough to remember that she was "Ma." "Good afternoon, sleepy?" she told him, tapping his nose lightly. He giggled. "Say?" he repeated emphatically, wanting to know where S'rei was.

"Say isn't here right now," she told him cheerfully. Pointing to Kaegan, she said, "This is Kae-gan. Say hi to Kaegan?"

"Hi!" he giggled happily, snuggling into Shmee with another yawn. She looked back up, positively glowing as she returned to Kaegan's hair. It was good that she was almost finished with her hair- Miguel would probably want a toy of some kind very shortly.

"So," she continued pleasantly, letting the comb work out any knots, "Once Millieth is in the Flight, stay with her until it's over. After all, you don't want her to risk going between in some kind of passionate thought. But you really won't have much say in it- you will be Millieth. You probably don't understand what I mean now, but you will. It's like, you're only a ghost of yourself when Millieth is at Flight. You won't be much aware of what's going on around you, whereas you can feel the wind beneath your wings as Millieth."

Done with the combing, she set it down on the little table in front of them. Clutching Miguel, she moved around to Kaegan's front, finishing the look by running her hands through the hair that hung on the side of her face. "I miss having long hair," she commented, almost regretfully.

"All right, so before we move onto part two of this little discussion, I'm going to get Miguel a toy and make us some klah. As I said, you can't be sick in a Flight!" Smiling cheerfully, Shmee bounced off, tottering over to the little kitchenette before Kaegan had time to protest.

[Tashe]

Sitting quietly as Shmee continued to comb her hair, Kaegan placed her hands in her lap as she crossed her legs. For some reason, she thought it would be better if she just dropped any complaints about her senior counter part doing her hair besides, she kind of liked the feeling. Shmee was such a different person than Arga, where the Benden Weyrwoman was weak and scared, the Selenitas Weyrwoman had strength and boldness. When Kaegan was with her it was a whole different feeling than when she was with the older Queenrider, it actually felt more natural to be talking with Shmee about Queen Flights... it felt like she was talking to a sister of some kind. Perking her attention as the woman two years her senior began to speak again, the teen fiddled with a bracelet that she had found in the pocket of her dress.

"Yes. Be forceful, do not show any weakness, and be stubborn about not letting her eat meat. It will only slow her down and blood will make her energized..." As Shmee's child made a noise, Kaegan looked back into the woman's lap. He was an adorable child, and she could see why the foster mother loved him so much. Smiling as Miguel giggled a hello, Kaegan gave the boy a little wave before returning his greeting. "Hi!" Happily turning her head as Shmee began to comb her hair again, the young goldrider hid a yawn behind her hand, she had caught it from the young toddler. Dropping her hand as the Weyrwoman's words drifted out from behind her, Kaegan scrunched her eyebrows slightly. She would /be/ Millieth? Although the subject was foreign to her, the self generated reasons on how someone could be their dragon seemed logical to her. The mental bond between a human and a dragon was a powerful thing, it allowed not only feelings pass between them, but pictures and images too. So one could reason that the bond between a Queen dragon in mating lust could totally dwarf the Humans' refined instincts and cause the two to become one. Although she didn't voice these thoughts aloud, she was sure Shmee already knew about it and didn't need her to bother her with assumptions.

Shifting slightly as the Weyrwoman moved in front of her, Kaegan smiled slightly as her temporary surrogate sister ran her hands through the red locks on the side of her face. The young goldrider hardly remembered the way Shmee looked with long hair, but either way she thought the woman would look pretty. Raising her hand as she began to protest, Kaegan quickly dropped it as she realized once again that any protesting wouldn't have any effect. Snuggling down into the borrowed furs, the young woman quietly watched the flames in the hearth flicker.

[Administrator]

Bouncing over to the little kitchenette, Shmee found the cauldron of water used to boil water. Hurriedly filling it and setting the lid on, she gently placed it in the fireplace. Sure, she could easily call on a drudge to do this for her, but after her miscarriage, she hadn't trusted anything that wasn't made by her or S'rei. This finished, she flounced off to Miguel's little toy chest. Extracting a large, light fur, she plopped the boy on it on the floor, giving him plenty of his little toys. With a serious look on his baby-face, he carefully crawled over (with his twisted leg not as much as a hinderence as it used to be for this) to a soft, stuffed creature that Shmee still found unidentifiable. Keeping one eye on the boiling water, she came right back and settled next to Kaegan. "So, now onto part two. Sorry if any of this is uncomfortable." The Weyrwoman smiled sheepishly at the other girl. She knew that she hadn't liked talking about it with Sera when she was having it. In a way, she thought Sera hoped that Aslath would fail miserably at producing eggs. Well, she was wrong about that! Shmee thought proudly.

"Anyway," she went on, "here's a major word of advice: Lose your virginity before the Flight." Pausing to give Kaegan a stern look to make sure she knew she wasn't joking, she continued. "Sure, it may seem like a nice concept, being untainted so your dragon has the full choice, but believe me, there will be so many other things to worry about then that virginity is not going to be one you want to think about. In Flightlust, things can and will get nasty, even between the lovers. People will get violent if they can't go through what their dragon is, and once they do, they still are the dragon. It'll be like... losing your human virginity to a dragon. Except that is bestiality, and I don't think that's what we're going for." She pondered for a moment. She had taken this advice, and left to find someone to take her own virginity right after she had had this talk with Sera. But Kaegan didn't seem as bold as she did. "Do you have any close male friends?" she asked quizzically. She knew F'rah and F'con were, but one was a bluerider and they both were simply too old... Well, in Shmee's opinion. She supposed if Kaegan wanted a relationship with them, she could, but Shmee wasn't thrilled about the idea. "If so," she went on, "I'd recommend maybe just asking one. Then, at least, you won't have to worry about a miserable first experience."

Just then, the lid on the little pot whistled, and Shmee leapt up. Miguel looked over at the noise curiously as Shmee grabbed a potholder and pulled the pot away from the licking flames. Humming cheerfully as she brought it back to the kitchenette, she set the pot down and took out a couple mugs. Lazily tossing in a bit of klah bark, she poured the hot water over them. That finished, she brought the mugs back over to them, placing them on the little table. "Let's wait for them to steep for a few minutes," she told Kaegan cheerfully, her blue eyes flashing back to Miguel. Excitedly, he pulled himself to the edge of the blanket, his wide eyes looking up at Shmee playfully. She waved down at him, and he returned it happily.

"This reminds me of another thing..." she added, another smile at her lips. "Starting from when you do deflower yourself, you need to be open to the concept of pregnancy." Oh, deflower was such a funny word. Amused by it for a moment, she added, "Oh, it probably won't happen right away, but you should always be prepared. Of course, if you don't want to be, you can always take a quick hop between, or foster the child out, but..." She sighed. She probably didn't need to talk about this sort of thing with Kaegan. She hadn't even been with a man before, she assumed, and here she was, explaining pregnancy. In a way, her miscarriage had made her slightly paranoid about everything that had to do with pregnancy. She missed it, she could say. "...but we can worry about that when the time comes." Smiling a fake smile, she brought the klah to her lips.

"So yes. Find someone to share your furs even just once before the Flight, and things will probably be a lot easier to deal with. I couldn't even imagine trying to control dragon-lust if I had never even experienced the human kind!" This much, at least, should make sense to Kaegan. She had read in the Records about a Selenitas queen a few generations ago who had been virginal at her first Flight, and had described it as a nightmare.

[Tashe]

Quietly watching the fire dance within the confines of the hearth, Kaegan waited for the Weyrwoman to return with the water. There was an occasional noise from behind her, including the gurgles and giggles from Miguel, but the young Queenrider wasn't paying attention to them. She was focused on the flickering flames, although as Shmee hung the pot in the fire her concentration was broken an forced back onto the woman. "Its alright." Now for the part Kaegan hadn't really wanted to come to, there was no escaping it since the Weyrwoman plowed straight into the second part of their conversation. Although she never lost her shy smile, it did lessen to some degree as Shmee asked if she had any close male friends. F'rah and F'con were certainly her friends, but the young Goldrider could never ask the Brownrider for such a thing, even if she had needed to. And it would be odd to ask F'con about it, he was F'rah's brother and just to old for her. Then came the face of K'nam, its appearance in her head surprised Kaegan, but he was quickly dismissed and forgotten. Now that would be pushing it...

Jerking her head up as the pot whistled loudly, signaling the two of them that the water was ready, the Goldrider let out her surprised breath. Once again Kaegan returned her attention to the hearth as Shmee busied herself with making the Klah, although she did steal a few glances at the toddler as he played. Now that she was fully dried, the Junior Weyrwoman let the furs fall from her shoulders and pile comfortably in her lap. Shifting her head so that she could watch Shmee's path back to the couches, Kaegan nodded as the Senior Queenrider said to wait for a little while. Although the silence didn't last long before the Weyrwoman launched into the conversation once more, although this time the topic was about pregnancy. Kaegan hadn't said anything through the whole speech, and she knew her time to respond was coming up, it was just hard to bring it up.

"Well... I guess its a good thing... I'm not a virgin then." Letting her entire attention fall on to the young mother, the red head sighed before continuing. "I came from Benden, its very hard to stay a virgin there, although there are a few good men there. I was once in a nice relationship with a Brownrider, because hardly anyone over there really follows the Weyrling relationship rules, but he died in dragonback battle against Fort. I still believe C'leon sent him on that mission on purpose..." Growling slightly as the thought of her old Weyrleader popped into her head, Kaegan stood and before crossing over to the mantle. "... after he died I was pretty much free for the other men... the ones HE let of course, which were mainly Bronzeriders." Placing a hand on her hip and the other on the mantle, the young Goldrider shut her eyes against the tears. "So I've had both the good... and the horrible. You can see why I don't exactly like men..."

[Administrator]

Shmee blinked. Her naiveté had shone through once more, it seemed. She hadn't realized that, for all of Kaegan's youth, she truly did grow under Benden's wing. Letting the weyrlings have relationships?! That just seemed like the path to ruin for Benden. Shaking her dark head in surprise, she watched as Kaegan got up, moving towards the mantle. The mantlepiece was a mess, of course, with a thick layer of gray dust and an odd ceramic figure that Shmee didn't know where it had come from. Probably's S'rei's, or maybe something that belonged to old Sera. Well, whatever it was, it was ugly. Slowly getting up, she came over to Kaegan, placing a warm hand on her shoulder. However, she didn't say anything for the longest moment. Shmee hadn't run into this kind of situation for a while, and she wasn't exactly good at it. Nevertheless, she still wanted to be there for Kaegan, to comfort her. Rubbing the shoulder for a moment, her blue eyes flitted over to look at Kaegan's face as she closed her eyes.

"Benden is evil," she replied simply. So many things gone wrong because of Benden... deformed hatchlings, drugged queens, breaking of women, poisonings of the Weyrleaders, murders of weyrlings... "Don't let what happened there ruin you for this Flight," she told Kaegan calmly, suppressing her rage toward that Weyr. "The bronzers there are rough, and mean... at least, the ones you talked about." S'rei lived in Benden, and he was fine. She figured she should give them a benefit of the doubt in case there were more people like S'rei there. "But here, even though the Flight will be hard, it will be so much safer here. The men here are good, and none of them will hurt you." With that, she drew the girl into her arms, hugging her tightly, fully intending to hold her as long as she needed to to make sure Kaegan knew that this was safer.

Benden disgusted her. It seemed almost as though they were just... breaking down the people in Selenitas. They were trying to destroy all of their hopes. Well, Shmee thought grimly, she wasn't going to let that happen. They took one child, but she would try again. She wouldn't have them try and defeat her. She pondered. She needed to keep trying, as well as talk to S'rei about it. As soon as she could, Shmee wanted to be pregnant again. Shards, now that the thought was on her mind, she couldn't stop thinking about it. Rubbing Kaegan's back guiltily, she was brought back to the task at hand. Right. Making sure Kaegan knew that this sort of thing would be much different at Selenitas rather than Benden.

"I think the klah is ready," she told the girl, gently, giving her room to move from her if she wished. Suddenly, she felt a little pressure on her foot, and she looked down. Miguel had latched onto her foot, looking up at Shmee as if he wanted to be in the little hug with them.

"Meeeee!" he complained, reaching his arms up. Shmee chuckled, releasing Kaegan and bending down to lift him. Resting his dark head on her shoulder, Shmee smiled as she looked back at the other queenrider. "Let's sit back down," she said, already plopping herself onto the couch and reaching for her klah, all while keeping Miguel balanced against her. Taking a sip of the klah, she yawned. Rainy days could be interesting, she supposed.