Dance Wherlings ~ Lesson One (All)

[Rowana]

Roivao sighed long and deeply. He really should have quite this job by now. Roisk was pretty determined to keep doing it, however. He seemed to take teaching the younger whers as his personal duty, even when it wasn't. It certainly was hard to change his mind. At least Tiida wasn't so overly depressed anymore. That would have made teaching even harder. She was curled around his neck, glaring at the world instead. Puddleglum had decided that none of the students were going to like him, so he was going to sleep instead.

"Let's get this started." Roi nodded to Roisk. Standing a little taller, the big bronze nudged the minds of his charges. It was only a quiet reminder of where they should be. The students had all been informed of their first class, so they should be arriving in the common room shortly.

Once most, if not all, the students had arrived, Roi wasted little time getting the lesson started. With luck, the new curriculum would be both more interesting, and better. "Good evening," he began, clearing his throat. "As some of you probably know, my name is Roivao and this is Roisk," he waved at his wher, who offered a rumble of greeting. "I will be your teacher for the next few months. You'll be happy to know this is your only class for a few weeks so you can adjust to wher handler life."

Roi paused a moment to let that sink in and gauge reactions. "However, you will each be assigned a mentor who will help you from now until graduation. You will be expected to spend time with them and learn from their example." Hopefully it would be a good example, Roi thought. He listed each pairing in turn:

"Dinag and Disk are paired with Eikane and Eikask,
Kostya and Kontask with Piden and Pidesk,
Kinstar and Kinstsk with Quintrell and Quintresk,
Tekivix and Tekivisk with Dmitri and Dmisk,
Darmori and Darmosk with Yoalla and Yosk,
Ximera and Ximesk with Nautic and Nautsk,
and Marsayis and Marsask with myself and Roisk."

"Any questions?"

LESSON ONE: Basics of wher care; Intro to Night Sentinel structure/ranking system; First bonding exercise.

Attendance

Darmori of Bronze Darmosk
Kinstar of Brown Kinstsk
Marsayis of Blue Marsask
Ximera of Blue Ximesk ~ Not yet arrived XD
Dinag of Blue Disk
Kostya of Green Konstask
Tekivix of Green Tekivisk

One post = green
Two posts = blue
Three posts = yellow

[Avu]

Yeah, he had a question.

Who the shards was Dmitri? Was that someone he was supposed to, uh, know?

Tekivisk huffed, breath warm as it skittered across his palm, and it twitched involuntarily, Vix’s fingers brushing against the underside of the green’s muzzle as her tail curled around his ankle. Calm, VixHers; they would surely find out soon enough and she was sure that most of the new handlers didn’t know their mentors either. All in due time, VixLove. Her head pressed onto Vix’s thigh lightly, tongue sliding out to lick his hand again – the hand that wasn’t all wrapped up with stitches, that was. She’d been very careful about that, always – did not wish to hurt VixHers at all.

Not that he was currently really caring much about his hand. Vix moved one hand up to rest lightly against Tekivisk’s neck where it joined to her jaw, fingers idly tracing the line of throat and the slope of her jaw; his bandaged hand was doing nothing nearly as gentle, tapping out a restless rhythm against his other thigh. He was sitting with one leg pulled up under his other, one foot brushing the floor, on top of the couch closest to the rooms they’d been issued – didn’t have the energy to move any further, because, honestly, this whole nocturnal thing? Was not working out.

And, yeah, that may or may not have been the biggest understatement Vix had ever made, even in his own head. Ngh.

He lifted his hand from Tekivisk’s head to rub his eyes with the heel of his hand before he dropped it back down onto the green wher again as she attempted to stealthily crawl onto the couch, yawned, and then slouched back on the cushions, shifting around ungracefully to get comfortable. Whereupon he found himself with a lap full of wher. And just couldn’t be bothered to shove her off like he usually did when she crawled onto his bed (his bed, thanks – she can take it around the same time when he willingly curled up to sleep on her stupid slab of rock and straw). Instead, he wrapped his arms around Tekivisk and plopped his forehead down against her.

Hello, temporary pillow.

Of course, the whole sleeping-during-lessons thing didn’t work out so well because Tekivisk wasn’t really big enough to hide the fact that his eyes were closed, nor tall enough to provide a real pillow without his neck hurting, but she’d do. She’d have to, or Vix was fairly sure he could fall asleep standing up. Didn’t mean he’d stay standing up, though, because he wouldn’t, and all things considered, a wher’s hide was a hell of a lot softer than the ground when it came to pillows. Hopefully everyone else had a lot of questions, he thought absently, curling up around Tekivisk.

[neeuqtar]

Walking was difficult for Kinstar. The sprained ankle would have been bad enough -- she had to use crutches or else hobble around like a lame runner. Combined with the stitches in her chest and hips, the bandaging to keep her from bleeding everywhere, and the thrice-be-damned back and neck brace the healers had rigged to keep her from turning too far (and thus ripping out stitches)? It took forever to get anywhere. At least that anywhere didn't involve the rope bridge spanning the Selenitas River. Kinstar was relatively sure that she would die if she attempted to crutch her way over the ever-swaying platforms. It had never made her nauseous before, but Kinstar was already nauseous from fellis.

Gnawing determinedly on a strip of klahbark, Kinstar crutched into the lesson room, following Kinstsk, who had forever made her life unpronounceable. The brown hopped up onto a bench-seat, clambering over the back and pacing along several times, checking for dangers before he looked up and barked sharply. All clear! She made her deliberate way there and sat down stiffly, her posture kept straight by the brace. The brown wher sat next to her in perfect position, his tail curled and his wings furled. For one used to the wrinkles and jowls of whers, he was quite a handsome specimen -- smallish, but well-built, save for his small wings. He was never going to be good at gliding.

Because this was a class, Kinstar had brought a notebook, a piece of flat wood to use as a lap-desk, and writing utensils. Whether the wherlingmaster would have anything interesting to say would remain to be seen. Kinstar was tempted to see if she could be excused from lessons based on oral or written exams, for surely she knew far more about whers than most of the assorted rabble who had Bonded along with her. She had slept in the Infirmary for the past se'enday, but maintained her schedule, much to the disgruntlement of some of the other patients. Kinstsk had stayed with her. He was already used to sleeping and moving in a blindfold, taking direction and (once) even vision from her. It was an interesting academic exercise, to see how their minds interacted while her body healed and his grew.

As the wherhandler started to speak, Kinstar labeled her notebook carefully. The front had already been marked with clear letters in black ink, declaring it to be a book of "WHERLING NOTATIONS." The first page had been left blank; here she scribed under "WH'LINGMASTER" the words "Roisk/Roivao" and next to that, two parallel horizontal slashes, like so: = . Underneath, she wrote "MENTOR," followed by "Quintresk/Quintrel." There was always room to edit if her spellings were off. Her Infirmary-gossip had gathered most of the whers' names and colors; Kinstar knew Quintresk to be a brown. Next to the pair's name went a single dash.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kinstar saw the nearby wherling lie down using his green wher as a pillow. Well, that was certainly not right! The starcrafter nudged Kinstsk, who looked up at her attentively. She tilted her head towards her crutches, leaning against the bench next to the wher, and flicked her eyes at Tekivix. The brown seemed to get the idea, and yawned widely (sparking a yawn from the slightly fellis-woozy Kinstar), stretching and shouldering the crutches so that they fell right for Tekivix's hips. Kinstar smiled, just a bare hint of the expression, and reached into a little belt-pouch to grab a strip of klahbark.

"Sorry-- I'm so sorry," she said, scooting sideways and reaching for the fallen crutches, just barely managing to reach them. Kinstar leaned back up, brushing her short hair from her face and pursing her darkened lips. As always, her hair and make-up were meticulous, though her brace mussed her plain shirt. "Here," she added, softly, "it's klahbark." Kinstar held out the offering. "It'll help you keep awake. And you'll want to know about the wher-care, at least. Whers are prone to fungal skin infections." The starcrafter turned her attention back to the wher-pair at the front, raising her arm partway, so as not to bother her chest stitches.

"I have a question," she said in the same moment, in a clear voice obviously meant to be heard. "Are we required to do extra chores around the Weyr, such as the weyrlings are? I have Craft duties to perform." No reason to fiddle around the issue. Kinstar was fine with being 'mentored' by an older wherhandler, though she was relatively sure she had little to learn, as far as nocturnal life, navigation, and whers were involved. The politics and such of Selenitas were more in the dark (so to speak) for her. But she had absolutely no desire to do the drudge-work of the Weyr, particularly not when she had more pressing issues at hand, such as an accurate topological map of Selenitas Weyr, and later, its main territory.

[Requiem]

"Would you like some tea, Ximesk?" Tea? He glanced at her curiously, wondering what this 'tea' was. The blue had tasted blood - which was somewhat yummy, yes, given it was the blood of His - water, and milk! Milk, he was convinced, was the bestest stuff ever made, and His was ever so kind to provide it for him on a regular basis. Nevermind that he refused to get up without a saucer or two or three. The plump little wher wriggled as Ximera poured the 'tea'. He wasn't sure why she was calling the milk something different, but it was definitely milk, and that was good enough for him! Plopping his foreleg in it to make sure the saucer didn't move on him - it liked attempting to escape - he set about attempting to lap up the milk around his leg. And was quite thoroughly trumped.

A whine had just started in his throat when Ximera reached over and nudged his leg to one side, Ximesk yipping a cheerful thanks and burying his snout in the milk in his excitement, jerking back with a sneeze. Xi giggled behind a raised hand. "Tongue first, remember?" She flicked out her tongue in demonstration. Oh, right, right, that was for later when there were only drops left, now he remembered! Ximesk set to lapping up the milk at his usual slow and steady pace. Roisk's mental brush didn't phase him - and he didn't pass it on to His. Roisk and his clutchsiblings wouldn't be going anywhere. But the milk! Someone would surely come and try to steal it, and Ximesk would not have that. Nope. He must finish it first.

[rii]

"Does your narcissism know no bounds?"

The amused question drifted across the room from where Kostya laid on his back sideways across his cot. His legs dangled off one end, his arms the other, and he watched from his upside down perspective as his weyr posed not for the first time in front of a small mirror. Konstask's wings fluttered in a flirtatious manner, her head curling demurely in toward her chest.. bluntly ignoring the question. Kostya rolled onto his stomach, folding his arms beneath his chin. "I don't know who gets more use out of that, you or Marsayis."

Speaking of which, where was his roommate/friend. Kostya had assumed he flitted of to get something from the kitchens but that had been a while ago.. and Kostya had been half asleep. Clearly his friend was more adapted to a nocturnal life. Kostya was just letting his eyes drift back to a close when Konstask informed him that lessons were beginning – and that they must go. Why? So her brothers and sisters could see her, of course. And she hoped hers didn't plan going in that. Konstask sent him distasteful images of the wrinkled state of the shirt he had worn to bed. "Oh like anyone is going to–" His words cut off when she flooded his mind with images of the blue tunic that made his eyes stand out. Kostya in turn narrowed said eyes at his little wher that was busy nosing into his trunk for the garment of her desire.

No doubt if he refused to comply Konstask would throw a royal tantrum. It was too early.. or late ..to deal with a howling wher baby. He hoped this was a temporary phase with her. "Fine, fine." Kostya climbed off his bed, stripping as he went so to pulling on the tunic his wher wanted. That followed with the pants.. and she wouldn't let him leave without wearing boots or fixing the cowlick that had formed on the back of his head from sleep. Despite her fussing they weren't too late coming in to the lessons, even if Kostya's pace was painfully slow because he didn't want to rip out one of the stitches in his calf. They settled down in the front, just so Konstask could be at the head of the room and be in immediate view of her clutchsiblings and their lovely teacher.

He listened with half-interest to Roivao, noting things worth remembering and staring straight ahead for the most part. The clatter of a crutch against the floor made Kostya twitch out of his daze, his head automatically turning to view the disturbance. Konstasks distaste filled his mind – just look at that silly girl. She looked ridiculous. Should of stayed in the infirmary where no one could see her. The least she could do is heal up so she could present a half-decent face to the rest of them. The only thing that saved Kinstar from Konstasks distaste was her brown clutchbrother. Nice of him to come and see her, wasn't he?

"I do believe the point of him lying down is to not stay awake," Kostya chimed at Kinstar, glancing past her at Tekivix before returning his attention to Roivao. It was hard not to snort at the girl's question – miss I have duties to perform, can't possible hassled to do more. Exactly what was her craft anyway? Kostya's pale eyes flicked back over, tracing over her physique – probably something useless by the looks of it.

Attention swiveling back to the teacher, Kostya offered another question. "Am I expected to seek out my mentor on my own time? Or do we have a set schedule to meet, and how often.."

[glamourie]

They had to get to lessons. They were going to be late. Why was he hiding? What was the purpose of this hiding? Was it a game? Were they exploring? What was that sound? It was very large and it sounded like water, it made him thirsty. Could he have some water? But after lessons. Lessons were important because if they missed lessons, they’d have to make them up and then His would be disturbed from his ever-important preening. Silly slaveHis. Why was he wandering off? Come back, come back. That was not the way to lessons.

“We are not going to some lesson for me to learn to take care of another parasite. You’re even more obnoxious than Calamari, he’s at least small enough that I can lock him in things and ignore him for long periods of time!” Nevermind that he’d taken quite fine care of Marsask so far and he’d never harm Calamari; he wasn’t capable of hurting his mindmates, no matter how much they made him want to throw himself off a cliff just by existing. He was quite adamant in finding a way to hide behind the waterfall and not be bothered. The only perk the wherhandlers had, really, was that their barracks were behind the waterfall so they were permanently cooler than the rest of the Weyr, which was slowly getting to be more temperate to begin with. He was not interrupting his plot for some lesson that was bound to make him gouge his eyes out. If Marsask wanted to go so badly, he could. He just wasn’t. “Shoo. Shoo, parasite.”

Marsask sat down and regarded His thoughtfully. Comparing him to the little pestilence did not make him happy, no it did not. (He’d learned the word pestilence from SayisHis because he called the blob that regularly, and Marsask thought it quite fitting.) He’d have protested more, but he wanted to go to lessons and see his siblings. It was a learning experience. There were better times for exploring. He’d explore later. Why did His insist on being difficult and doing things the hard way? Well, fine. Marsask snorted and grabbed Marsayis by the leg (rough enough that the tall young man actually screeched in response) before literally dragging him across the floor back toward the classroom. And fortunately for Marsayis (for Marsask would’ve been displeased otherwise), they managed to arrive just in time to not be late. The baby blue wher was strong – strong enough to carry his waif of a human easily if he wanted to, though it looked like a canine hauling a particularly large carcass about. He dragged Marsayis in, ignoring the protests, and then moved to forcibly sit on top of his reluctant handler before flaring his wings happily. See. He’d made His come.

“I’m bruised,” Marsayis mumbled to Marsask from beneath the blue wher. He didn’t weigh anywhere near enough to hurt him though – it was just annoying. He could’ve climbed up if he wanted, but he was busy being in pain because Marsask was a lot stronger than he looked and there were rocks on the way. He felt like he’d just been stoned. Glaring at his wher, Marsayis ignored the lesson until he heard his name (he also didn’t even notice Kostya – see how much attention he was paying? So pleasant) and then he looked up in blatant confusion. Any questions? Yeah – “What did you say? I was busy trying to make my little nuisance get off me and understand that forcibly hauling me through hallways isn’t socially acceptable.. OR FUNNY, stop with your laughter – I don’t care if you’re not making noise, I know for a fact you’re laughing and there is nothing funny about this. I think my butt’s bleeding because of you.”

Not like there was enough meat on it to matter. Marsask licked Marsayis’s face pleasantly and yipped to Roisk in greeting. They were to be partners? Fuuun. He got the teacher as a partner~

[Rowana]

Roivao surveyed his class thoughtfully. Four out of seven wasn't all bad, but where were the other three? He sent Roisk a questioning thought. Yes, they had heard, the bronze confirmed, but they had yet to come. Roi hid his disappointment. Maybe they just needed more encouragement. He nudged Tiida with a finger. "Would you mind seeing what's keeping them?" he asked quietly. Tiida frilled in annoyance, but fluttered to the floor and ran off.

Roi turned back to the class. "No," Roi shook his head at Kinstar. "You won't be expected to do chores beyond the care of your own whers and rooms. You should have time to continue your Crafts as well." He was about to call on Tekivix, sleeping wasn't a good way to start class, but Kinstsk's "accident" would probably do the trick. He was surprised to see Kinstar had come. He'd expected the infirmary to excuse her and rightly so. Her determination was admirable. Roisk dipped his head in greeting to each of the new whers, rumbling in amusement at Marsask's arrival with His.

"That's a fair question," Roi admitted to Kostya. "I've asked the mentors to meet with you after class so you can arrange times to meet. You'll meet once a night until you're more comfortable with wher life. Once classes resume, once every few nights will be sufficient." Roi glanced at Marsayis. He couldn't really blame him for being grouchy or hard of hearing under the circumstances. "I was just saying that you will all learn from a mentor for the next few weeks," he explained patiently. "You and Marsask and partnered with me," he added. That should be fun.

"If there are no more questions," he said slowly. He wanted to be sure everyone understood before he went on. It was a pity he couldn't make this lesson more interesting, but there wasn't really a better way to teach it. "The structure of wher handlers and what we do has been changed recently. We are divided into four main groups. As you learn more, you'll chose which you want to join out of graduation. First is the Domestic Branch. Whermaster Eikane is the leader of this, as well as the head of the wherhandlers in general. This group includes myself, those whers assigned to guard the queen, healers, and other aids."

He paused to allowed for questions before going on. Though it would be repeated often, it was important that everyone understood this new system quickly so that it worked well. In many ways, they were still experimenting to see if the organization was sound.

Meanwhile, Tiida had found her way into Ximera's room. Stupid beast, she scoffed. Drinking milk when she should be listening to her precious. The salamandyr leaped onto the edge of the bowl and spread her wings angrily. Her frill might have been small, but her wingspan was impressive for her species. Come younglings! Tiida demanded of the pair. Late, late! Precious calls now!

[Avu]

“Nf – !”

Vix jerked sideways sharply at the smack against his hip, peeling his eyes open to scowl at Kinstar. Still, he didn’t actually snarl at her or anything, given that he couldn’t prove it wasn’t an accident. However much he wished he could. Instead, he merely puffed out a heavy sigh and pressed his forehead against Tekivisk’s hide as the little green nuzzled his hip where the crutches had hit, tongue sliding out to soothe the spot. He pushed her head away and took the klahbark from Kinstar in the same movement, sticking the strip into his mouth. Sleep would’ve been nice, but the crutches falling had probably gotten the wherlingmaster’s attention.

And a caffeine high was a good option, too.

“Awesome,” he replied dryly around the klahbark, rubbing his hip absently. His nose crinkled faintly at Kostya’s words, Vix turning back to the teacher with another faint huff, crinkling his nose. And then yawning, widely, almost dropping the klahbark and barely rescuing it. It stayed in his hand at Marsayis’s entrance, the look on the greenhandler’s face an interesting mix of utter bewilderment and amusement. Tekivisk, still curled on his lap, barked quietly, tail wagging; VixHers considering something even as vaguely amusing was a good thing, she’d already learned.

Oh, look, the actual lesson was starting. Vix chewed on the strip of bark as Tekivisk nosed at it curiously, jerking his head back instinctively, away from her. Domestic branch, great. Ngh. Even with the bitter-warm taste of klah on his tongue, Vix was still fairly certain that he was capable of falling asleep. Now if only that girl and her brown would let him. He tuned out fairly quickly, unable to concentrate, and ended up staring with eyes glazed over in Roivao’s general direction, arms winding around Tekivisk and pulling the green against his chest as he curled up around her.

“By queen,” he said, jerking out of his stupor to ask – and no, he hadn’t raised his hand, and if interrupting was rude, so be it – “you do mean the queen wher? Why’s she need protecting? It’s not like she can’t bite, is it?” His nose crinkled in faint disapproval. Wasn’t like with dragons, when the queen was ever-so-fail and couldn’t flame or whatever. “And also, we’re at a Weyr – wouldn’t the dragons be targeted?” Was he seriously missing something that big? Because if they were all about to go up in flames because Fort got pissy or something, he was so not staying.

[neeuqtar]

"Probably," Kinstar replied brightly, though softly, to Kostya. It seemed pretty obvious that he didn't like her much, though she couldn't really fathom a reason why, it wasn't as if they had done anything to draw disapproval. Perhaps the boy wanted to do chores? That seemed odd, though. Kinstsk sat at attention as questions were answered. Kinstar nodded slightly at the response about chores -- good. She would probably have been able to put in a request to simply be assigned to permanent Archive duty or something of the sort, where she would just have continued to do her Craft work. But there was no need to cause trouble unless strictly necessary.

Domestic branch... hmm. Perhaps not entirely to her flavor. Administration was always a commendable path, but being bodyguard to a queen wher was not entirely satisfactory. Kinstsk, however, seemed to think differently, arching his neck and flaring out his small wings slightly, as if he would be the first line of defense for the queen. Queens were girls, right?

"I'm sure there's other ways to defend the females," Kinstar whispered softly, under cover of the green handler's sudden question. Despite his sleepiness, the other wherling seemed to at least have interesting questions, though Kinstar could have answered the first one. Of course the queen could fight -- Southern Hold whers did, all the time -- but leaving the progenitor of all future whers to fight alone was a silly move. In her meticulous handwriting, Kinstar scribed the very little information they had about the domestics, including the two known domestic-branch wherhandlers. From what she knew, it seemed that the wher population here was very small, indeed. Perhaps there were only two whers in the so-called 'branch'...