Candidate Lesson 3: Whers

[Ruby]

Alcherion - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Armind - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Buram - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Cainith - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Casandra - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Draym - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Ivy - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Kaius - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Kilkin - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Olivia - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Raylanne - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Rosanna - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Saphor - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Sena - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Sydney - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Uulagrenari - 1 2 3 4 5 Special
Vivano - 1 2 3 4 5 Special

colored numbers mean you have completed this lesson. struck out numbers mean you completed the lesson previously, and do not have to repeat unless you choose to.

Today's class had been rescheduled - instead of a morning or afternoon lesson, the Candidates had been given the morning off and the afternoon had been devoted to chores. Now that it had gotten dark, they should be assembling out in the dim Weyrbowl. It was dark enough that those who forgot to bring glows would have a hard time seeing where they were going; M'kai had a few glowbaskets with him, spread out in a circle, but they were almost completely shielded, casting just the tiniest bit of light so the candidates could find him. The reason for that loomed behind M'kai: a big bronze shadow, attended by his red-haired Handler, lounging back against the Wher's side (in all honesty Pidesk was small for a Bronze, but to candidates who weren't familiar with Whers he would certainly look big enough).

As soon as most of the candidates were assembled (there would always be a few latecomers), M'kai shifted, quietly calling attention to himself. "Candidates? This is Wherhandler Piden and Bronze Pidesk. Some of you might know them, I know they've offered to help out with some of the previous lessons." Leaning forward, Piden gave a coy little wave, then crossed his arms and went right back to lounging. "His Bronze recently caught Gold Eikask-" M'kai paused momentarily to allow Piden his ironic, sketched bow "- So there will be a Wher clutch laid in the next few months, which makes this lesson fall at a very convenient time. Tonight we're talking about Whers."

Pulling a stack of cloths out of his pocket, M'kai started counting them out as he continued, "Let's start with what you all already know. Who knows something about Whers? No need raise your hand, just shout it out. You'll all also need to come get a blindfold and find a partner, we can get that going while we go over what you already know... you can ask questions, too. I can answer some, but I'm sure Piden can field the rest."

((This lesson is mandatory even if you aren't a Wher candidate, FYI. Go!))

[draym]

Draym listened intently, He was one of the first ones to really arrive. He looked around at all his other fellow Candidates and shrugged. His partner didn't matter, so he would just simply wait on someone to approach him.

As Draym walked over toward the blindfolds, he felt he should speak up.

"Well, Sir, I don't know much about Whers, other than they are nocturnal. They can't even stand sunlight can they?"

Draym picked up a blindfold and remained near the rest of them, awaiting his partner, whoever it might be.

[neeuqtar]

Nighttime wasn't a strange place for Uulagrenari to be. He spent a lot of time up late, at races, taverns, and the like, so it wasn't odd for him to be out long past Rukbat. He'd brought his own glow -- a dangling cage made of copper, with a mirrored shield. But he kept the whole thing mostly shielded, picking his way along by the faint light. It was really for when he got back inside the Weyr, which was a pain to navigate even when the hall glows weren't shielded.

He lounged against a rock as M'kai spoke, keeping his eyes on the bronze wher and his handler. He knew a little bit about wherhandlers -- he had relatives who were handlers somewhere, and he'd met some of Bitra's handlers on their evening rounds before. The bronze wasn't a huge beast, but he looked handsome enough in the dark. Ri was relatively ambivalent as to whether or not he Impressed a dragon or Bonded to a wher. A wher would give him more freedom in the future if he accepted his inheritance in the North, of course, but dragonriders had more respect (though they saw more battle, something he was not keen on).

"Whers can't mindspeak, but they're just as intelligent as people," Ri called out from his position against the rock, before thrusting himself upright with his shoulder and strolling over to pick up a blindfold and stand near Draym, eyeing Pidesk sidelong. "And they Choose their human like a dragon, but require blood for the bond to be secure," he added, less loudly. Uulagrenari almost wanted to ask what sort of status was conveyed by being the handler of the wher who Caught the queen wher, but decided not to. There would be time to find out such things later.

[Aftershock]

Cainith slowly wended his way through the hallways, both from lack of light and general fatigue. His chores were even harder lately with both his arms injured from his tussle in the jungle with F'ur, though his right elbow was only slightly sore and swollen at this point, and the sewn-up cut under his left armpit didn't give him much trouble as long as he was careful stretching his arm out. He still didn't want to strain either injury too much, however, and so had to slow down and sometimes figure out different manners of doing things when it came to his chores, which made them a bit more exhausting than usual.

He had convinced Rollhead to stay in the Candidate Barracks, claiming to have "divine business" that mortals could not participate in. He was simply glad the effect of the medication he took to recover from his injuries had leeched over to Rollhead, preventing him from being afflicted by Runlust from the most recent salamandyr Run... with Rollhead still recovering from his torn wing, and Cainith recovering from his injuries, participating in the Run (especially, as Ivy had told him later, since F'ur was there for some reason) would have been nothing but a disaster.

Emerging into the Weyrbowl, he followed the light from the glowbaskets until he reached the area surrounding the Candidatemaster. Listening carefully, he responded when prompted by calling out, "From what I've been told, whers with domestic backgrounds are much more light-sensitive than those with a bit of wildling in their blood, and that they speak in mental pictures and emotional empathy rather than mindspeak." Plodding forward, Cainith grabbed one of the swatches of cloth from M'kai, and nodding in greeting to Piden and Pidesk (it never hurt to be friendly to those who would hopefully be your peers soon), he scanned the crowd of Candidates, hoping to catch Ivy's eye so as to partner with her. He wasn't entirely happy with what had happened out in the jungles, and she seemed to be much more interested in other men lately, but he still loved the girl, and still wished to spend as much time with her as possible.

[Avu]

“They can go between the same as dragons can, they choose names based off of their handlers’ with the length indicating a closer bond, and sometimes if their wings are big enough they can fly, but they mostly stay on the ground,” Sena offered, shooting Pidesk a curious smile; even if she might’ve paid more attention to M’kai before—or the other Candidates—Pidesk’s presence was enough of a novelty to distract her. As her classmates began to file up to get their blindfolds, Sena stood from her seated, curled up position at the base of a rock, and decided that since everyone was crowding M’kai for a blindfold, the first order of business would be getting a partner. And that was pretty much a no-brainer, wasn’t it? Sena didn’t speak, instead just sidling over to Sydney and sliding her hand into the older girl’s.

“Hey, partner,” she whispered, drawling the word out in an exaggerated accent, nudging up against her bunkmate’s side affectionately. “Are you gonna Stand for whers? I don’t think I ever asked you that.” Which was genuinely surprising; she chattered at Sydney often enough that Sena thought it really ought to have come up at some point or another—particularly since she intended to Stand for whers. They weren’t as pretty as dragons, but she’d already Stood for just dragons before and it sure hadn’t worked out then. She didn’t want to stay Standing forever, and whers were pleasant enough creatures, from what she’d heard.

Drifting over to M’kai and his blindfolds, she ducked around some really tall Candidate’s arm to snag two of the cloths, loosely tangling one around her wrist and offering the other to Sydney as she attempted to maneuver them away from the surge of Candidates and hopefully closer to Pidesk. Because yeah, she really only knew about whers very much in theory; she’d never really come into contact with them before. She was curious, even if she made no move to speak to the wher save for a cheerful smile and a silent wiggle of her fingers in a wave at Pidesk. And Piden, since it was only polite.

[Kisha-Ra]

Night or day tended not to matter much to Vivano, he’d burned the candle at both ends many times in his life, and the habit wasn’t likely to stop as long as there was a wher queen here in the Weyr. True Vivano hadn’t caught more than a few glances of her so far, or of any wher come to that, but he was still hopeful. It looked like hope would win out tonight, Vivano noted, his eyes darting to a largish (bigger than the shapes he normally saw up close, runnerbeast sized if he was any judge) shape in the room. It did make sense for a wher pair to be present in a lesson about whers.

The wher had pretty much all of Vivano’s attention, a bit was diverted to listening to M’kai, enough to get the wher and handler’s names and know what he was meant to be doing. The majority of Vivano’s mind examined the wher, guessed at his standing height, his length, the likely running speed, and so on and so forth until there was a break in the shouting of wher information.

‘It doesn’t matter what their parents were. Wild born whers can bond, domestic born can live wild. Whers can outlive their handlers, rebond or turn wild. Heard tell wild adults can choose to bond too, but I never wanted to get close enough to a wild one to find out one way or the other.’ Vivano spoke his information rather than shouting it, but he was confident it would get there. Once there was a little space he drifted forward to claim a strip of cloth with dubious look on his face. How exactly was this supposed to help him learn about whers? He held the question back to ask later if things didn’t become clear.

Looking around for a partner Vivano instantly decide to target the giant beaded guy, regardless of what the other guy actually wanted, for several reasons. ‘Hi. I’m your partner now.’ He introduced himself cheerfully since grown men didn’t get the option of grabbing people by the hand to trap them; hopefully this giant was of the amiable sort. ‘I have no idea what this lesson is going to involve but I don’t want to look like a child stealer while I’m doing it.’

[InsaneWhitey28]

A firelizard scratched her. No seriously. At least that was the story for the reason for the long cat like scratch across her cheek. For whatever the reason had chosen the young woman to suffer its ire. But really, it wasn't her fault. She had come just a little too close to the delectable bread in the Dining Hall.

She was almost too good at this.

But the true reason for the scratch was because of Cotton, and only because she had offended her with the very thing her lie contained.

Firelizards.

Whether M'kai knew about the green salamandyr, Rosanna herself was not apt to show the tiny thing off in public, rather careful when she was in secluded corners to let Cotton out, and because of her confinement and secrecy for so long, the green had gotten a little bit more attached to Rosanna herself, so as to almost refuse blatant orders to stay behind, or go out in the trees for a while. Like when she had to go to candidate lessons and the mandyr tried to crawl up her shirt. As usual.

After much ordering, the pleading ordering, then begging ordering(because Rosanna did not outright plead or beg to a Sharding salamndyr), the teen finally became drastic. And oh so sweetly suggested that perhaps since Cotton wasn't listening, even when she begged, that perhaps she wasn't the perfect image of mandyr etiquette, perhaps a firelizard would create a better image than her?

She only saw a flash of green and the her cheek stung. Cotton was gone. Out of the Barracks, her mind screeching her rage even as her own displeasure was heard down the halls. How dare Rosanna even suggest it! How dare she!

The said human just shrugged it off knowing Cotton would be curled up somewhere in her covers later, waiting like a good little mandyr even if she would still be fuming and even possibly avoid Rosanan for a while. Like ignoring her, and only coming near her for food. But hey. She got the silly thing off her back... er.. chest for a while.

And thus she ended up at the lesson mandyrless and wracking her brains for anything she knew on whers.

"Dragons are offended when compared to them," Rosanna said, giving a slight tilt of her head at her indifference even as her eyes flashed to Piden. Not that she had anything against them personally, but she was a dragon candidate and though she saw the value of this lesson in the long run, thought it close to pointless for her. Though, she conceded with a small snicker, maybe they needed the classes to seem bigger? Since there were so few here for whers after all.

She made her way to the blind folds and snatched one up, taking herself to a secluded corner wondering who she'd be stuck with. She really wasn't a groupy person. She just hoped whoever it was wasn't... lame.

[Tashe]

Putting her hair up into a runner tail as she walked, Raylanne pulled the locks through the holder with practiced motions. Although she couldn't say she was looking forward to going through something that seemed atrociously like apprenticeship all over again, the Journeywoman decided to try her hand at it anyway. It was why she was brought here after all... despite her complaints. Taking the last few steps at a jog she drew up next Rosanne, taking notice of the fact that everyone had seemed to pair up. Though she didn't stay there long, moving to get a strip of cloth from the men standing before the class. "Sorry," She said to the Candidatemaster, "I was resetting a Tibular shaft fracture."

Plucking one of her own she tossed it across her shoulder before returning to an area near her bunkmate's side, she did spare a glance for the Wher and handler but only for a moment. Their lesson tonight must be about Whers. She'd met a few Holdwhers in both continents as she traveled around for her fieldwork, a few had been amiable enough, though her interest had never been in obtaining one. For a partner or a study subject. Same went for Dragons. Her specialty lay with bones and dead people, not the living. Quietly she waited to see if any more candidates would arrive, she did like to have choices when it came to partners.

[draym]

Kilkin jogged up and clutched his side. He was late, but oh well. Sharding people needed care in the Infirmary and it just had to be on his little half-shift. The Journeyman was tired, but being a Healer and a Candidate had its perks.

The bulky Kilk stood up straighter and nodded over to the Candidate Master. "Sorry M'kai, sharding Infirmary work." He gave a dramatic eye roll and looked around. Whers tonight then. It was then he saw most of the other Candidates around a table with blindfolds. Many of them were paired off.

Kilk didn't need a repeat of instructions, he sauntered over to the blindfolds, grabbed one and looked around.

"Does anyone still need a partner? I don't bite....unless you're a sharding idiot."

[Zephyr]

Kaius would have been happier if they had had the entire day off. But beggars can't be choosers and all that, and he took his chores in stride. At least he didn't have to worry about extra chores anymore. Not liked it mattered. Once you get into the rhythm, double chores are pretty much the same as regular chores.

Wanna commmmeeeee! Came the wailing in his head. Now, normally, King wasn't the type to wail about anything. But for once, Kaius had been able to impose his will on the salamandyr. It hadn't been easy, and most of the time, King would have been happy to stay in the barracks, curled up on Kai's pillow. Now though, he was terribly curious as to why his had to go out when it was so dark out. Kai was actually surprised that King wasn't trying to follow him, but knowing that mandyr, he'd probably be here by the end of the night.

Speaking of, Kaius was having a hard time making his way in the dark. He regretted not bringing something to light the way, but he wouldn't exactly say anything to anyone else about it. Things got better though, when M'kai and the others came into view. Without a word, the boy slipped into the meeting, leaning against a rock with his hands stuffed in pockets. As M'kai talked and talked and talked, Kaius stayed silent. No point in saying anything when that know it all of a candidate said his piece.

He would have groaned when M'kai told them to take a partner, but he was too apathetic to care. Walking up, he grabbed a blindfold and started walking away from the throng, tying the cloth to his eyes. It probably would have been a better idea for him to go find his partner first, because almost as soon as the blindfold was secured, a distracted Kaius walked right into Sena and Sydney, hopefully not running over the girls in the process. Surprised, he fell back onto his ass, rubbing his face with a hand.

" Sorry," He muttered, not bothering to take the blindfold off. If he was going to be forced to pair up, why should he see who he was pairing up with? And as of yet, he didn't know who he had slammed into or even that there were two of them. " Wanna be my partner?" Maybe partners would have been a better word.

---

Olivia wasn't the first to arrive, but she wasn't the last either. Arriving comfortably in the middle, she was enraptured by the sight of the giant wher. She had always seen herself as a dragon rider, but the whers were so cute! A dragon might be able to talk to you, but the whers were a little more independent. They might not have been able to go out in the sun, but at least they didn't automatically die if something happened to their riders. Not that she thought whers were any better than dragons, but they were so cool! She wanted to run up and hug Pidesk. Oh course, that might not have been the best course of action.

Merry, who had been resting comfortably on his bonded's shoulder was surprisingly quite up until now. Opening his beak, he made a little sound and bit Liv's ear sharply. Grinning through the pain, she rubbed her ear. " Yes Merry. You're the best of all, along with Pippin and Baby of course." She had taken to calling Impala baby. The little firelizard didn't seem to mind. In fact, the little thing didn't seem to care about much other than sleeping. She and Pippin seemed to hit it off right away, luckily, and the pair of them were probably curled up asleep on Liv's bed. Merry of course couldn't stand to be away from Olivia...not that he really could. He was still very little and required frequent feedings. Plus, she had gotten used to his presence on her shoulder. And, he no longer made her ear bleed when he bit her.

Grinning happily when M'kai told them to get a partner, she bounded over to M'kai and accepted a smile with a happy grin. Looking around, she tried to see who was already partnered up when Kilk suddenly appeared, talking about a partner. Grinning widely, the little girl bounded over, razorclaw bobbing on her shoulder as she took the big candidate's hand. He was SO much bigger than her, but she wasn't afraid. She stood at hatchings, had oiled full grown dragons. Big people didn't scare her. " Hi!" She grinned cheerily up at Kilk. " I'm Olivia and I need a partner. Wanna be buddies?" She beamed up at him.

Merry was curious about this candidate. The little razorclaw made his way across Olivia's arm, using his talons and beak as hands, he was finally close enough to give Kilk's hand an experimental bite. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough for him to feel it.

---

Saphor really was over this. She wasn't the oldest candidate, but she was the oldest one able to stand for dragons, and, as far as she knew, she was the only one with a nearly teenage daughter. She really resented being treated like a child. For faranth's sake, she was only a year younger than the damned candidatemaster, and only barely. Sighing, the woman stayed near the fringes of the meeting. Why she had to attend these lessons were beyond her. The whole sex lesson was a joke, considering that she had had a child. Speaking of.

Saph eyed Piden as he lounged behind M'kai. She spent most of the time staring at Piden and not listening to M'kai, actually. When the candidatemaster was finally done talking, the woman took her time stalking over to grab a blindfold, flashing a look in Piden's direction. " I bet you're loving this." She said, with a half grin on her face. Well, at least she wasn't being hostile towards her former lover anymore. After all, he had given her Phai...even if he hadn't stuck around afterwards. Ah well. C'est la vie.

Now she just had to find a partner. But she wasn't looking forward to pairing up with any of these kids.

---

For once, Buram was dressed in muted colors. He stood closer to M'kai than Saphor was standing and was grinning broadly at the red haired candidate master. He didn't mind whers at all. Some people might look down on them, but he thought they were just as good as dragons, in fact, probably better since he wasn't really afraid of them. He wanted to say something when M'kai asked his question, but other people piped up and Bur shut his cake hole. Instead, he watched Pidesk with a happy grin.

When it was time, he walked over to take a blindfold, eyes scanning the crowd. Most people were already partnered. Frowning a little, he noticed Rosanna standing by herself and walked over, grinning at the girl.

" Hey there. Wanna get together?" He asked, waggling his eyebrows comically for a moment. Oh god. He was awful at playing straight. " And by that, I mean, do you wanna be partners?" Hopefully she had a sense of humor. He hated it when people took themselves too seriously. What use was life if you didn't enjoy it?

[Rei]

Sydney had finished her chores earlier and had basically been paling around with Sena doing random things while they waited for lessons to begin. As the light started to wane the taller of the two had grabbed a glow and started after her blonde friend. As they made their way into the weyrbowl her gaze traveled to the man next to the Candidatemaster and then more importantly to what was beyond him. A wher. Sydney had seen them once or twice in the hold and even a few times here at the weyr. But it was always at a distance. Never close enough to make out much but the most vague features of the creatures. She could see why some people called them ugly but really they looked nothing but powerful as they moved.

Had the candidate considered impressing a wher ever? Not really. But she had signed up as a dual candidate anyway. Mostly because she didn’t want any opportunity to impress pass her by. Really it might not be all that bad impressing to a wher? Sydney stood silently and waited as everyone around her tossed in their two cents. To be honest she knew next to nothing about whers besides the fact that they couldn’t stand daylight. Which wasn’t going to help her much considering someone already said it. So the girl stayed quiet and concentrated on listening to what everyone around her was saying.

When Sena returned with the blindfolds she smiled down at her friend and squeezed her hand before allowing the younger girl to lead her a bit closer to the wher. Sydney had to admit that she wanted to see the creature closer up too. Her emerald eyes ran over Pidesk thoughtfully before someone stumbled into her and she whipped her head around to shoot off an angry retort. Upon seeing Kaius though she laughed instead and offered him a hand. “Way to go clumsy. Sure you can be partners with us. Right Sena?” Grinning at the younger man she winked and said playfully. “We can be a threesome.”

[Ruby]

M'kai waved Kilkin and Raylanne's apologies off, simply saying, "I don't care what you were doing, just talk to E'rro, make sure you're not late next time. He can tweak your schedules." No, M'kai did not understand anything about healing; no, that was not going to be an acceptable excuse in the future. E'rro could set things up so they left fifteen minutes earlier and had plenty of time to get to Lessons. "Also," he added in Kilkin's direction as the candidate headed away, "You're supposed to call me Candidatemaster, Master, or Sir. Council's being picky about it these days." Because he had slept with a student? Likely.

Meanwhile Piden had stepped forward, nodding as the Candidates called out what they knew. The Wherhandler wasn't especially good at looking impressed, but he was smiling a little sideways smile - he was actually rather impressed. "Well, you all know far more about Whers than I expected. Most candidates hardly know anything - I sure didn't. Imagine my shock," he drawled, "When Pidesk here attached himself to my mind and started demanding blood. I was only going to watch, I sweeeaaarrr," he said, shooting his Wher an affectionate smile as Pidesk nudged in under his arm. "So. That's the point of this lesson. Selenitas has a thriving Handler population, the biggest on Pern, actually, and it makes the Wherlingmaster's job a hell of a lot easier if you all know what you're getting in to.

"I'm not going to tell you," Piden went on - yes, he was loving this - "That Whers are equal to dragons, or that they're better, even though they clearly are. Some people are more suited to one or the other. Just don't dismiss Whers until you know what they're all about, okay? So. What are they about." Holding up one hand, he ticked off the points the Candidates had made on his fingers, pointing out who had said what. "They're nocturnal. Whers raised wild and with wild blood can stand a very limited amount of light, but domestic born and domestic raised whers are basically restricted to moonlight and dim glowlight. None of you were quite right on the mind-communication between handler and wher, but it's not really something that can be described. They're just in your mind; kind of like your brain has two bodies, with two whole different ways of seeing the world. Whers have a great sense of smell, the ability to sense heat, and incredible night vision. It's... different. Same with intelligence - they have a wide range, believe me not all of them are as smart as people, but again, they think differently. What's smart for a human is not the same for a wher. None of them can fly, those with larger wings can glide, though. Pidesk can a bit." He didn't bother going over Vivano's statement again, or Sena's bit about naming - both candidates were right on. Rosanna, though, got a sharp look. Piden would bet she'd never stand for a Wher. "And Whers are offended when they're compared to dragons, because it's not an apt comparison. It's like comparing flits to cats - there's no point."

Before that could get ugly, M'kai stepped up again. "So, there's your wher crash course. We'll go in to a little more detail in a bit. First, though, you all have partners?" M'kai looked around, noting who was and wasn't paired up... and who'd gotten into a threesome. "Sorry, groups of three won't work for this lesson. Someone will have to partner with me or Piden. Sydney, why don't you work with Raylanne, and -" "I'll partner with Saphor," Piden broke in, all innocence. "Sure," M'kai said, blissfully unaware of Piden's pleased little smile. "So. You all have blindfolds? This is a lesson young Wherlings do, to help sympathize with their new Wher. You'll do it with your paired candidate instead. First, one of you will be blindfolded. The sighted candidate will turn you in a circle to disorient you. After that, the sighted candidate can't speak or touch the blind candidate. You'll have to find another way to lead your blind candidate to the Weyr's ground entrance. Then, swap the blindfold, same rules for sighted vs. blind, and find your way to the training field we were working at last week. I'll meet you there. Any questions?"

((SO this is how this is gonna work. The first candidate to post from each pair is the first sighted candidate. Come up with some tactic to lure your partner to the weyr's entrance. THEN STOP!

Candidate #2 from each pair will then pick up the narrative. They'll cover what they did while blind, then how they plan on luring their partner from the weyr's entrance to the training field. THEN STOP!

Candidate #1 will post again, covering the time when they're blind.

Candidate #2 can then post again, finishing up if need be.

You are allowed to assume your blind candidate partner is generally cooperative and competent, but try to leave things open ended and vague-ish so they can fill in details. Assume your candidate knows where the Weyr ground entrance is and where the training field is. Remember that your candidates start INSIDE what is essentially a huge cave, and then cross OUTSIDE on to a path surrounded by jungle. Sighted candidates can grab a glow if they are smart.

I expect these posts to be short. I'll post with Piden once Zep posts with Saphor, but you DO NOT need to wait for me to post during this activity. As long as your partner has posted, you can post again. Ask if you have questions!

As a reminder, partners are:
Draym - Uulagrenari
Cainith - Vivano
Sena - Kaius
Rosanna - Buram
Raylanne - Sydney
Saphor - Piden
Kilkin - Olivia))

[Avu]

Sena was paying attention to Piden’s explanation on whers—really actually paying attention; she’d had Benden’s Candidate lessons for all the dragon-related stuff they went over, after all, but the wher part was new—and she was perfectly content to keep paying attention, leaning on Sydney affectionately, when someone ran straight into both of them—more Sydney, fortunately, as Sena was comparatively much more likely to tip straight over given her lack of balance without Sydney’s help at the moment. Even so, she stifled a yelp of surprise, and then, upon turning to find that it was only a Kaius (and a blindfolded Kaius at that) crinkled her nose and giggled at him, flicking a grin at Sydney for her bunkmate’s comment.

“Graceful, Kaius,” she commented, teasingly, and leaned down to grab Kaius’s hand and put it into Sydney’s and then pull at his other hand to lug him to his feet with Sydney. “Yeah, I think,” sending a fast sneaky glance around, “There’s an odd number anyway, M’kai won’t complain.”

Except, evidently, that he would. For a minute, Sena clung stubbornly to Sydney and Kaius both, and then reluctantly released her bunkmate’s hand at M’kai’s direct indication that she should go partner with one of the other girls. “Fiiine,” sighed with a playfully overdramatic eye-roll, screwing up her mouth into a pout, “I guesss we can give you up. Bye, Syd.” Still, just in case M’kai decided to further rearrange them, Sena kept a firm hold on Kaius’s hand as the Candidatemaster explained the rules of their little game, and then tilted her head to look speculatively at her partner. “So I guess you’re blind first,” she commented to Kaius, reaching up to poke the blindfold between his eyes playfully, “Okay. Hold on a sec.”

She pulled him with her—just so he didn’t wander off all blindfolded—to scramble around until she found the fragments of two rocks, each one slotting neatly into her palms once she released Kaius. “Okay, so…this sound, remember it, yes?” Because she hadn’t technically spun him yet so she was okay with talking, right? Bouncing up onto her tiptoes she raised the rocks to his ear and tapped them together lightly to make a distinctively earthy clacking sort of sound, before dropping back down to tug at his shoulders to turn him around in a circle as per instructions, holding him steady for a second after the requisite circle was complete so he wouldn’t immediately topple over on her or anything.

Balance (for the moment) secured, Sena clacked the stones together next to Kaius again for good measure as a reminder, and then stepped away from him to tap the rocks together again, louder, luring him away from the Candidate herd and towards their goal.

(It really was a good thing that talking was prohibited; Sena was biting her lip to prevent laughter and a puppy joke or two would not have been out of order at all.)

[Aftershock]

Cainith started a bit as the other Candidate approached him, looking down at Vivano with an eyebrow raised. He opened his mouth and was about to say something, when suddenly he remembered that Ivy had been at the previous wher lesson with him, and that meant she didn't have to come to this one... and probably wasn't going to. Shutting his mouth, he sighed a bit and shook the man's hand, though trying not to crush it in his grip, and replied, "All right, guess it's you and me, then."

Waiting for Vivano to put on his blindfold after hearing M'kai explain the lesson, Cainith grabbed Vivano by the shoulders and heaved, likely spinning the man to the point of nearly falling over. If he did, or spun towards any obstacles, Cainith would grab him by his shirt to stop his momentum. After making sure the man was properly disoriented, Cainith would retreat back towards the Weyr ground entrance, stomping his boots to try to lead Vivano in the correct direction, hoping the other man would be unable to mistake the boot stomp of a nearly 500 lb. man for anything the other Candidates were doing to attract their own partners.

[draym]

Kilkin was taken by surprise when a little hand slipped possessively into his large one. The Journeyman looked down to see a pretty little girl beaming up at him. Olivia, she said her name was.

Kilk grinned down at her and chuckled. "Hey there, girlie, I'm Kilkin. Who's your little...SHARD!"

Kilkin jerked his hand away as the razorclaw bit him, more out of shock than pain. The thing was a bit vicious. "Olivia dear, I hope your little feathered friend isn't always so vicious." Kilk rubbed his hand before patting Olivia on the head gently.

"On your blindfold goes, Olivia honey. And listen carefully after you can't see ok?" Kilkin smiled at her and knelt down until the blindfold was secured. Quickly, he gave the girl a twirl to disorient her. From there, Kilk stood back up and started walking, dragging his feet over the ground, rocks skidding around and making noise until he got to the entrance of the cave, sliding his feet over the grass enough to make noise for Olivia to follow.

Kilk checked behind him every few feet to make sure that the girl was following. As they got to the entrance of the Weyr grounds, he stopped, took Olivia's blindfold off and slipped his own on, after a quick wink to his cute little partner.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Draym looked over at the boy that had chosen to partner with him. If Draym was right, his name was Uulagrenari, quite a mouthful. Draym grinned.

"Well here we go, mate. Lets get this over with." Draym smacked him on the shoulder gently and chuckled as the other Candidate put on his blindfold. Draym scratched his head for a minute. No touching and no speaking. Grunts? Draym spun his partner around quickly to make him dizzy.

Draym gave a grunt close to the other boy's ear and then moved a few feet ahead, grunting again. As they slowly reached the entrance to the Weyr grounds, Draym smirked and gave a nod. "Alright."

Draym slipped his blindfold on and waited for his turn.