Candidate Lesson 3: Whers

[Zephyr]

He was relieved when he recognized not one, but two voices from the other side of his blindfold. A little peek from beneath confirmed that he was sitting in front of two of his favorite girls. He gave them a little grin, ready to defend himself to Sena when they helped him up. For a minute, the tall boy wobbled, on the verge of falling over on the girls before he finally steadied himself. Sometimes it sucked to be tall. He was perfectly happy being paired up with either girl, and didn’t feel like choosing between them. “ How can he complain? All the awesome in this place is concentrated in this very spot.” He said, grinning cockily for a moment.

But, M’kai didn’t see it that way and he found himself being torn away from Sydney. He felt like making a dramatic thing out of it and clinging to Syd as Sena pulled him away, but he didn’t. Instead, he grinned apologetically at his older friend, reaching a hand out to pat her on the head awkwardly, but instead, since he couldn’t see, his hand came down around her chest somewhere. Jerking it away, the boy colored bright red and darted off to join Sena. He wanted to say something to Sydney, but everything seemed to flee his mind in that moment.

Luckily, Sena already knew that he was likely to fall in his current state and hadn’t let go of him. He followed her willing. When she let go of his hand, he wondered what she was up to when she suddenly tapped some rocks together by his ear. “ Thanks for the warning there, Sena.” He said, rubbing his ear and grinning as his friend started to spin him around. Wow. It was a little trippy as he wobbled there in the dark. Sena tapped the rocks as she walked off and Kaius took a moment to orient himself before he started in the direction of her rock tapping. He was blind, and confused and there were so many other sounds. Kai’s hands were outstretched like a zombie as he felt for, well, anything. Luckily for him (and he wasn’t sure he’d make it a few times), Sena’s plan seemed to have worked, and Kaius was able to make his way to her. When he finally touched her, he would proceed to pull the shorter girl into a hug.

“ Found you.” He said, peeking out from under his blindfold at her before he let her go and pulled the blindfold down around his neck. He wondered how he was going to get her back to where they were, when he noticed a familiar presence that was forever at the peripheral of his being. King was crouched in the darkness, hidden in the nook between two rocks. For all intents and purposes, the bronze salamandyr was invisible. The lights from the glows didn’t reach far enough to reflect on his scales. I should be mad at you for coming, but I won’t if you help me out. Get pretty to silly red hair? Kaius wanted to laugh at King’s description of M’kai, but affirmed the thought. King looked from them to where the red haired candidate master was and agreed. This would be fun.

Turning to Sena, he grinned down at her blindfolded self before lowering his head to her ear. “ Don’t make it obvious.” He whispered lightly before pulling away and saying in a louder tone. “ Now remember that sound!” He said, snapping his fingers. After that, he started spinning the girl around a couple times and making sure that she didn’t fall over, he backed up towards where M’kai was, snapping his fingers. He knew full well that wouldn’t be enough to get her to him, not with all the other sounds surrounding them. That’s where King came in. Reaching out to the girl’s mind, he uttered private directions whenever needed. Right…no left…right…too far silly…closer!

They were probably cheating, but if M’kai couldn’t tell, who cared? It wasn’t like they were going to impress whers anyway.

---

The blonde woman was half relieved when M’kai decided to pair some people up. There was a girl over in that silly group of three that looked about her age. Suddenly though, Piden piqued in and Saph shot him a look that narrowed into poisonous barbs. Tolerating him was one thing, but spending any one on one time with the man was not high on her list of priorities. Unfortunately, she knew Piden knew this, which was most likely why he wanted to be her partner in the first place. Literally facepalming, she watched him silently. “ Well get over here then.” When he didn’t move quickly enough for her, she walked over and put HER blindfold on him, standing on her tippy toes to match the five inches in height he had over her and tied it behind his head, leaning into him so that her mouth was close to his ear and her hands were resting on his back. “ Don’t think I’m getting grabby now.” Her voice was somewhat husky and teasing.

She would then pull away and spin him around, probably more times than she actually needed to. Half tempted to kick him as he walked blindfolded towards her, she giggled lightly and let go of him, letting her fingers linger on his arm for a second before she whistled lightly. It was only a couple of notes, but it probably would have been unmistakable for Piden. It was part of a tune of a song she used to whistle when she was younger.

Turning, the blonde woman walked silently towards the entrance, snickering at all the people making crazy sounds as she went. Once there, she turned on her heels and whistled again, this time a different tune from the song. Her voice was light, but he would still be able to hear it unless he was completely deaf.

---

Olivia was greatly pleased with her choice of companion. He was tall, which should make everything easier, right? That was before Merry decided to get to know him. She frowned at the bird, tapping it on the beak firmly. Merry looked at her and hurried back up her shoulder, settling in the crook of her neck. After that, she turned back to Kilkin, frowning at his words. “ Merry isn’t vicious!” She exclaimed, as if the words offended her. The bird ruffled in response, obviously offended. “ He was just curious. We aren’t around others too much.” She reached up and scratched the bird’s neck absently before shrugging and tying the blindfold around her head.

All the time Merry was watching her curiously, then, deciding he didn’t like the blindfold, started picking at it. That was until Kilk started spinning her. The little bird flapped his wings and clung to his girl with sharp talons. Liv hissed in pain, wishing Merry would just let go already, he could fly for Faranth’s sake, but he still insisted on riding everywhere on her shoulder, or Pippin’s back when the fluffy canine allowed it.

The sounds of Kilk’s feet across the ground weren’t that obvious, especially with all the sounds going on around her. Merry, oblivious to what was going on squawked lightly and nestled down on Liv’s probably bloody shoulder and watched as his girl got clumsily closer to the boy he had bit. It took the girl a while, and she almost fell a few times, but she finally got there.

Grinning up at Kilk as she took the blindfold off, she tried to spin her tall partner, and since she was only like a little more than half his height, he probably had to spin himself for the most part. Then she turned and ran off, belatedly realizing that she had to lure him towards her. Merry, however, would probably do that for her, because he protested as she ran, chirping unhappily and ruffling his feathers loudly. He was irritated by the time they got to M’kai, and Olivia hazarded a quick glance up at him.

Oops.

[Avu]

Sena dropped both rocks when Kaius reached her, grinning at him as she looped her arms around her partner’s neck to return his hug, informing him with mock solemnity, “You make a real cute puppy…’specially a real cute blind one.” Bouncing back on her heel, Sena stepped sideways to avoid another pair who’d gotten there, unknotting the blindfold around her wrist to tie it around her eyes, screwing up her face experimentally until the blindfold settled right. It was weird being blind, despite how she’d teased Kaius, and Sena wobbled before she instinctively groped for Kaius, catching at his arm for balance and still making funny faces to get used to having the cloth over her face, “Wow this is super weird…”

Wait what?

Don’t make what obvious?

She crinkled her nose curiously at Kaius, but kept silent at the sound of snapping next to her ear. Submitted to being spun, even if a particularly enthusiastic twirl on her behalf had her grabbing for Kaius for balance again until she found her feet and stood with her head tilted, waiting for the…not obvious thing. The snap of his fingers had her drifting like a sleepwalker in Kaius’s direction, her mouth twisted up in concentration, until King’s input directly to her had Sena stutter-stepping in surprise, eyebrows rising behind the blindfold and mouth curling into a startled smirk. Well would you loooook at who was cheating…

Still she moved slow enough, because good directions from King or no, Sena still didn’t want to faceplant; that would be spectacularly awful and eventually the girl settled into a shuffling pace with her arms flailing only a little when she managed to stumble over nothing.

Eventually she managed to walk/flail right into Kaius, made a decidedly undignified startled sound, and wound her arms around his waist, using his shoulder to push the blindfold up over her forehead. “Ha,” she said smugly, and tucked her chin over Kaius’s shoulder to whisper, “Tell King thanks, and also that his human pet is a shameless cheater, just so he’s on guard. Sneakyyyy,” she planted a playful smacking kiss on his cheek and added, louder now so they didn’t look entirely sketchy, “We make the most amazing team of blind people in the history of ever. Did we beat Syd?”

[Zephyr]

He wanted to laugh at her reaction to King, but he had told her not to make it obvious. So he bit back the laugh, still snapping his fingers half-heartedly. He knew she wouldn't have a problem getting to him, so he forgot more often than not to snap at all. She was moving rather slowly though, which Kai mistook as a desire not to let anyone in on their secret instead of what it really was, the girl not wanting to land face first on the ground.

When she finally made it over to her, he beamed at her, hugging her once more before she whispered to him. His grin widened and he whispered back. " Oh, I think he already knows this." The blush returned to his face when she planted a kiss on his cheek and chuckled lightly at her words, looking over to where Syd was with her partner.

" Hm." He said, looking around. " I think we beat almost everyone. Go us. Syd needs to hurry so we can tell her." He grinned widely.

[draym]

Kilk smiled and whispered. "Atta girl."

As the little Candidate tried to spin Kilkin, the Journeyman Healer had to help her out quite a bit. It did make him smile when he heard her little feet pitter away quickly as she ran toward where he assumed the Candidate Master was now.

This is going to be hard, if she doesn't give me some clue...wait...I hear that bird thing freaking out! Kilk chuckled and darted off toward the sound of that little razorclaw that he knew was latched to Olivia's shoulder.

Once the creature stopped ruffling and freaking out, Kilk stopped too, and took off his blindfold. Luckily they were where they needed to be and Kilkin nodded over toward the Candidate Master. He gently ruffled Olivia's beautiful hair and smiled down at her.

"I think we are going to be great friends, Olivia." Kilkin cleared his throat again and glanced back up at M’kai.

"Sorry about my manners earlier, Sir, its been a long day." Kilkin made sure to emphasize the word Sir, so that M'kai would be sure to hear it.

[neeuqtar]

Ri only paid halfway attention to Piden's discourse on whers. He'd already gotten earfuls about how amazing whers were from his relatives -- not to mention getting his drunk behind saved from getting robbed at least twice by wherhandlers on patrol in Bitra Hold. They were different from dragons by all means, though Uulagrenari found Piden's comment of them being as alike as flits and cats less than apt. It was more like comparing burdenbeasts to racing runners. They were superficially similar, but with completely different strengths and weaknesses.

With a shrug, Ri put his blindfold on first. It was a thick enough fabric that he couldn't discern anything in front of him, but there was a thin slit of visible area just below the edge of the blindfold, where his nose held it out. He fumbled down by his feet to pick up his glow-lantern again, shielding it fully. Draym's toes came into sight underneath his nose in the dim light of the glows by M'kai, and the other Candidate roughly spun him. Uulagrenari complied with remarkable docility. Then, Draym grunted in his ear, just about making Ri jump from the unexpected noise.

Unseen, he rolled his eyes. Really? Grunting? Not very creative, and quite likely to get one detected in the outside. But whatever worked, he supposed. Slowly, he made his way, following the swine-like sound carefully. Everyone else seemed to be making noises to lead their partners as well -- either with mouth or foot. It seemed the easiest route to go, without a mental bond. And it wasn't as if either of them had a mind-mate who could be used as a go-between, either.

It was nice to be able to see his feet, as Draym put exactly zero effort into keeping Uulagrenari from stubbing his toes as they moved through the ground exit out of the Weyr. Luckily, he didn't run into anyone (he would have been quite peeved) and when Draym said "alright," he took off his blindfold with some relish, his eyes now perfectly happy with the dim and dappled light offered by the moons shining through the foliage at the entrance to the jungle path.

For a moment, Ri considered bending the rules and just leashing Draym with something and dragging him along... after all, he wouldn't be touching the other Candidate. But Uulagrenari was far more practical than he was bored (though all bets would have been off if he'd had a well-trained flit), and instead he hooked his lantern to his belt and grabbed a stick off the ground, breaking it against his thigh to proper walking-stick length.

Before Draym managed to get his blindfold on, Ri showed him the stick, and then thumped it against the ground. It was heavy enough to make both a dull sound on the packed earth, and be felt from close by. "I'll walk just behind you. Turn to the side I hit this on, otherwise go straight." Then he waved imperiously for Draym to blindfold, and led him into a rapid series of spins, leaving him facing perpendicular to the path.

He led Draym in a slow turn to the right onto the path, and then strolled behind him, herding him along the twisting jungle path with heavy thuds of his staff. It was much easier than trying to deal with watching to make sure Draym was following, with the added benefit of the fact that both the closest sound and the feel of the ground's motion could lead the other Candidate, without much thinking involved. It was a bit of a pain dealing with the other Candidates staggering about, and Ri had to unshield his glow as they got into denser foliage, but all in all it was not that difficult of a task to make it to their destination.

[draym]

Draym couldn't help but smirk. His partner was resourceful, that was for sure. Hoping he wouldn't get smacked with the stick though, Draym slipped his blindfold on. He heard a thud of the stick and turned that way, still a bit dizzy from the spinning.

As the thuds kept coming, both left and right, Draym felt like he was being spun again. It was dizzying turning quickly from one side to the other, obviously to keep himself from tripping over things in their path, maybe even other blindfolded Candidates.

Finally, they made it. Draym took his blindfold off and sighed. "That was...interesting. My name is Draym by the way, not sure that we covered who we were." He grinned at his partner.

[neeuqtar]

"Uulagrenari. Call me Ri," the other man offered, with a half smile in return to Draym's grin. The other Candidate had been a good sport, he had to admit. Lazily, he leaned on the top of his makeshift staff, watching as other Candidates arrived. "I never expected to Stand for whers, but it certainly is interesting navigating by dark." He stared off into the darkness for a moment, reminiscing and thinking.

Dragons had been the daydream of many a child, before the wars, but Ri had liked his life at Bitra Hold. He'd been successful and his family was wealthy. But at the Weyrs? He was essentially a nobody, and it rankled more than a little bit for a person who was used to having a great deal of autonomy and authority. Ri wasn't interested in Threadfall or in warfare, he was interested in profit and power, and thus far, he had neither. If he'd been a woman (and thank whatever controlled that, that he wasn't) then he'd be heart-set on a gold dragon, but as far as he was concerned... well, a bronze dragon could give him power in the South, perhaps, and a wher could give him freedom to return and claim his birthright in Bitra Hold after a time. Fate could throw what she wanted at him; he always found a way to prosper.

"Guess we just wait, then." He shrugged faintly and continued sizing up the other Candidates.

[Ruby]

Sigh. Apparently "No Talking" meant "Chatter away as much as you want, as long as you pretend you're doing it right." Luckily for the Candidates, M'kai didn't much care either way, as long as they got where they were going with minimum effort on his part. Honestly, he was surprised more of them didn't get turned around, what with all the sound echoing throughout the weyrbowl, but whatever. At least they were being creative? Piden had headed off with his Candidate, so M'kai gestured somewhat uncomfortably to Pidesk, heading off towards the meeting place with the Wher in the lead.

--

Piden, still smiling a self-satisfied little smile, let Saphor come to him. Her murmured words just made him smile wider and answer her with a noncommittal "Mmm," but by the time the Candidate turned him, the smirk was gone. Instead, he simply looked cooperative (and sexy, but Piden always looked sexy). Oh, Saphor, how much she'd changed since they were in their teens. It was... interesting seeing his delicate little flower all grown up. Or mostly grown up, anyway; after all, who ever really grew up all the way?

Lucky for Saphor, Piden navigated blind all the time. So while the other candidates were stumbling around in the dark, the wherhandler headed straight towards Saphor, walking with the sort of confidence a sighted person would have, hands stuffed in his pockets. Just to complete the image, Piden whistled back, filling in the tune she'd started - of course he recognized it. Only the scuffing of his boots betrayed the fact that he couldn't see exactly where he was going - he was sliding his feet across the ground rather that walking like a normal person, giving his gait an odd sliding quality. Regardless, it got him where he was going fast enough, and as soon as he reached the tunnel that lead out of the weyr, he stopped and shed the blindfold.

With a crook of his finger to Saphor (not that she was really far enough away to need to be summoned), he reached around behind her head, tying the blindfold in place from the front. Once it was in place, he reached up to brush a bit of stray hair back behind her ear, murmuring, "And you know I'll only get grabby if you want me to," his smile obvious in his voice. With that, he backed off, making no noise in the darkness. Being a Watch and Guard handler had it's advantages.

So how was poor, abandoned Saphor supposed to navigate without Piden's help? No doubt she'd stand there for a few seconds, waiting for some sort of sound, before she realized no sound was coming. Instead, a pulse of thought would enter her mind - Pidesk. Mine has asked me to ask you to come this way, the mental touch conveyed with just a hint of puzzlement. The path is ahead to your right, simply stay on the dirt.

--

M'kai, meanwhile, was watching as Candidates trailed in. When a decent chunk had arrived, he addressed them. "Good, I guess. You all got here. So now you have a better idea of how hard it can be to use your other senses - Handlers get good at that, from what I hear. If any of you want to get a closer look at Pidesk while we wait for everyone else to gather up, he's willing to let you. He won't bite, and he said it's alright if you touch, right Pidesk?" The big Bronze nodded, seeming somewhat distracted but welcoming none the less. He even went so far as to stretch his wings out and up a bit, so the Candidates could see how they differed from Dragons. For the most part, they would be familiar enough with M'kai's Blue to draw comparisons for themselves. "And while we wait, let me know if you have questions. About anything, not just Whers."

((If your partner hasn't posted yet, feel free to 'skip ahead' without them. You're also welcome to finish out the blindfold part if you want. ))

[Zephyr]

Piden was infuriating, he was insufferable, but he was just so damn hot! There were things about the man that reminded her why she fell for him all those years ago. But, had he really changed at all? Maybe he had grown up a little, but nothing truly life changing. No matter how he made her feel (and he made her feel things no one had ever made her feel before), she had to keep reminding herself that he was no good for her. Not anymore. Not when she had a child to care for.

She sighed deeply as she watched him walking towards her. Of course this wouldn't be difficult for him. This is what he had been doing every day since he impressed. Still. The two of them didn't even get through half of her song before he was there, in front of her. Her face was the perfect mask of not being impressed by his little show, though, inwardly, the way he moved towards her with such confidence combined with his natural body posture sent her stomach into a tailspin. Faranth, she hated that man. And she hated herself for still wanting him, even a little.

Lifting a brow, she was a little hesitant to get near him. Though it wasn't because she didn't trust him. She trusted herself less than she trusted him. Still, she didn't want to give him a clue of her inner turmoil and took a graceful step in his direction at his prompt. Her body tensed slightly as he stood in front of her, the beginnings of a smirk gracing her features at his words. She wanted to say something, but he was gone. The man made no sound as he moved away from her, but she could just tell that he wasn't in front of her.

Silently, the woman waited for him to make some attempt to lure her towards the training field. When nothing came from Piden, Saphor was getting slightly irritated. Even though they technically weren't supposed to talk, she was about to ask him what the hell was up when she felt Pidesk in her mind. She froze, barely daring to breathe as the wher told her which way to go. Taking a step to the right, she felt the dirt path under her foot, so completely different than the terrain she had just left. With that, she projected a thanks to the wher that she wasn't sure if he would hear or not and walked slowly in the direction the bronze had instructed her.

Saphor's steps weren't nearly as fluid as her partner's, but she moved with a grace that was undeniably Saphor, stumbling only minorly, and never to the point where she was actually in danger of falling. By the time the chatter of the finished candidates made it to her, she knew she was where she needed to be. Slipping the blindfold off, she flashed Piden a smirk that was slightly more tender than most of the looks she sent the man and stepped up to Pidesk, lifting a hand to scratch at the wher's eye ridges, as she had done with Zemask, and leaned in close to the beast, her voice breathless and undeniably tender. " Thank you."

---

Buram grinned widely at his partner, waiting for her to put her blindfold on. She didn't seem to be in a good mood, but nothing she could have said would get Buram down. " Isn't this fun?" he exclaimed brightly before realizing that they weren't supposed to talk and grinned apologetically in M'kai's direction before wondering how he was going to lure Rosanna to the weyr's entrance. Suddenly an idea came to him and he beamed brightly at the thought.

With that, he would begin to "herd" his partner for lack of a better word, walking next to her as she moved, always at her side. If Rosanna began to veer from the path to the entrance, he would bear closer to her. If she was walking the intended path, his body would get further away, but he never actually touched her. Only got close. If she veered in the wrong direction the other way, the boy would slip behind her and to the same thing. Only after she got to the intended spot did he speak, grinning broadly. " See? So much fun! My turn!" He exclaimed, slipping his own blindfold on.

[Rei]

Sydney laughed at Kaius’ statement. “That’s right. I would say we are the epicenter of awesome right now.” she remarked happily smiling at both of her friends. She really had to resist the urge to poke Kaius and ask him what he was doing stumbling along in a blindfold already. Silly man. Before she could comment more though Piden was speaking and the candidate turned, her head tilting every so slightly, as she listened to him. Really she couldn’t say she completely agreed with the handler. Whers and dragons had their similarities for sure. Maybe whers and dragons were more like comparing flitters and mandyrs then flitters and cats? That would have been a better metaphor for sure. Really it wasn’t her place to interrupt though so she stayed silent and occasionally shot a glance or two at her companions.

When the handler stopped speaking and M’kai spoke up the woman had to fight against giving an audible groan. Really? She got stuck with some girl while Sena and Kaius got to stay together? No fair. Frowning lightly she turned to her friends. “Well it seems that everyone cannot handle our awesome at the moment. So I guess I’ll see you guys soon?” Before she could say too much more then that Kaius was reaching out to her and she blinked as he pawed close to her and ended up grazing her breast instead of whatever else he was reaching for. Or maybe he was trying to grab at her beast? Sydney’s cheeks colored slightly as Kaius blushed as well and suddenly darted away. Obviously that had not been what he was grabbing for. Whoops.

Wrinkling her nose she gave a small wave to her two friends before turning to Raylanne. “You can go first.” She said simply to the girl before she waited for her to don the blindfold. Spinning the other girl around a few times Sydney then stepped back. With all the noise going n around her making more noise hardly seemed like a viable option. So instead she pulled a vial of spice scented oil from her pocket. She rather doubted her firelizard Jen would mind sharing. Dabbing a generous amount on her wrist and then her neck she waved it in front of the other girls nose. “Can you smell that? That’s what you’ll be following.” With that the young woman stepped back occasionally fanning the air with a wrist so that her partner could track her to the weyr entrance.

Once they arrived Sydney grinned. “Good job. That didn’t go to badly did it? My turn.” Donning the blindfold herself she allowed the other girl to spin her and then followed her cues to the training field. It was a bit disorienting being so blind but she did well enough despite the occasional stumble. When they finally reached the field Sydney took off the blindfold and offered Raylanne a small smile. “Well that wasn’t so bad I suppose.” Her eyes then scanned the surrounding area for the other pairs and she smiled when she saw Kaius and Sena among them. “I guess we can see the wher now?” She offered to the other girl before heading in that direction herself.

As she drew closer to Pidesk she curiously examined him from nose to tail tip. Sure he wasn’t a dragon and he sure wasn’t gorgeous. But nor did Sydney really think him all that ugly either. More like different looking. But then He had t be for what he did right? Moving closer to her two friends she murmured. “You guys are overachievers. What do you think of Pidesk? I think he’s kinda neat looking?” Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if she ended up bonding to a wher? Dragons were simply majestic but the wher sure held his own charm in ways too.

[InsaneWhitey28]

Fun was not her word for it. Ignoring the look Piden sent her way, she shrugged her at her part and resisted rolling her eyes as she covered them with the blindfold, got spun around and started off extremely dizzy. At first she found Buram's presence close to her at times annoying, and her instinctive reaction was to walk away and apparently go off course even more than needed. Which caused Buram's presence to get closer. And more annoying. It was like that annoying game of 'I'm not touching you!' while your finger was an inch from the other persons skin. Ugh. Rosanna felt her victims pain so literally right now. But eventually, she figured it out when she was back on course and Buram moved away. She knew she reached the entrance when she started being herded backwards, and then she took off her blind fold, narrowing her eyes at Buram. Once again, fun was not the word she would use.

After a moment of thinking on her part(while spinning Buram around), Rosa figured out how she would lure the candidate to the train grounds, snatching up a glow quick so she wasn't blinded as well. Raising her hand next to his ear, she gave a couple snaps and then pursed her lips and gave a sharp whistle, almost a perfect razorclaw imitation(though she hardly knew that) and began to walk away. Snaps for when he was close enough to hear them, and the whistle if she was far away or the noise of the other candidates were getting too intense for him to hear the snaps close up. When Buram was on the right path and was staying there, she would walk away and wait for him to catch up, and if he stopped uncertain or started going off course she gave the sharp whistle, calling him back to attention. When they reached the training ground, Rosanna simply stopped waiting for Buram to realize they were at their destination, and if he walked ahead of her, she would snap, or give a softer whistle until he figured out they were done.

Well. That surprisingly was slightly amusing, not like she would admit it out loud, but the slight twitch at the corner of her mouth was enough to show she had found some type of entertainment.

[Avu]

“Well,” Sena answered, dropping her arms from around Kaius’s waist to turn to look for her bunkmate, “That group only has half the awesome ours did, so it’s only logical they take longer.” Not that she had anything against Raylanne; she just didn’t know the girl at all and Sena had never been really interested in having huge groups of friends. One or two did quite nicely, and for all she’d seen of Raylanne, it didn’t seem like the older girl was exceptionally interested in being her friend either, so. (Besides, Sena figured that, just on principle, there were very few people as awesome as Kaius and Sydney were, so if she was included in that, that was just fantastic, but the chances that other people were also included in that were slim.)

“C’mon,” she added, catching Kaius’s hand again and linking their fingers together casually, “Bet Syd’ll meet us over at Pidesk, let’s go look.” The bronze didn’t seem really interested in being admired, but Sena still glanced over him with a careful assessing gaze. Didn’t feel the need to touch—whers had hide same as dragons did, didn’t they, and she sure knew what dragon hide felt like. Sena threw a curious glance at Saphor, who seemed much more familiar with Pidesk than any of the other Candidates, and then turned towards Sydney when her friend approached, flashing the other girl a wide grin and wound her free arm around the girl’s shoulders, canting her head sideways to rest on Sydney’s shoulder.

A playful scrunch of her mouth, “Just ‘cause we’re considerably more awesome than you ‘n your partner,” before her gaze flicked back towards Pidesk, “Yeah, I like him. Whers’re real interesting at least, and there’s gonna be that wher Hatching before there’s a dragon one, right?” Maybe it was just growing up with dragons—and Standing for those Hatchings repeatedly, without anything to show for it; nothing to put her off definitively like a scar from being mauled but nothing to parade around with glossy wings either—but whers were different. Good kind of different. She lifted her head off of Sydney’s shoulder again to glance at Kaius, “Y’all gonna Stand, you think?”

[draym]

Kilkin kept his distance from the Wher. He was strictly dragon rider material. In his opinion anyway. But, Kilk supposed he could take Olivia over if she wanted to go.

The Healer looked down at his much smaller partner. "Olivia, do you want to go see the Wher up close?" He gave her a smile.

"I'll go if you do." And that was that, if Olivia was going to go, he would tag along with the girl. He didn't want to let her go up to the Wher all alone, even if they were surrounded by other people. Kilkin would do as a good partner should, or he might get flayed by someone should Olivia hurt her cute little self.

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

Draym strolled over to the Wher, giving a quick glance back at his partner, Ri. The boy seemed a little strange, but Draym wasn't one to judge. He gave Pidesk a glance over.

The Wher was strange to Draym really. First he had ever seen one so close. But they weren't all bad, he supposed. He still would prefer a dragon.

Draym nodded and shrugged. Nothing against Wher's, but Draym was too pretty to go nocturnal.

[Kisha-Ra]

I’m sure ‘the council’ is. the sardonic thought was at least contained to Vivano’s mind, however his opinion of the candidatemaster had just lowered somewhat. Fortunately he had a wherhandler to pay attention to. The bronzehandler’s attitude at least made Vivano smile, it was nice to know that someone around here retained a sense of humour. At least to the point of an implied insult to his wher it seemed. Vivano could sympathise with that, dragons were huge glorious beasts that everyone dreamed of, whers tended to be compared unfavourably.

Vivano felt a little resentful about being blindfolded, on the basis that whers weren’t blind and he didn’t have the greater than human senses of smell and hearing to go with the blindfold in any case. He was aware that it was a childish thought, and since none of the actual children were objecting he could hardly whine. Being spun in a circle by his bear of a partner was another thing he objected to but since he was practically falling on his butt he couldn’t say he wasn’t properly disorientated.

Shaking his head to clear it so he at least wasn’t staggering Vivano paused, closed his eyes pointlessly and sorted through the sounds and scents in the room. Turning slowly he orientated on a heavy footstep, it might have been smart to pick someone so big to partner after all he decided as he confidently followed that stomp, moving slowly to avoid the furnishings and his fellow students.

‘I do believe it’s your turn.’ He stated, pulling off his blindfold and handing it to Canith. He wondered absently how he was going to play guide. He wasn’t heavy enough to stamp distinctively, and with all the noise everyone else was making he needed something distinctive. Vivano hummed softly in thought, then realised what he was doing and stopped for a moment, only to resume in an old tune, as he spun the larger man around. Hopefully he wouldn’t get penalised for the small vocal sound.

Though he contained his impulse to rush forward and start examining the wher minutely to approaching sedately when there was a chance Vivano certainly didn’t stint on making observations. Pidesk seemed pleasant enough, not that Vivano had much to compare him to in the way of whers or dragons. Eventually he moved aside to make room for someone who did need to decide what they wanted to stand for.

[Aftershock]

Cainith accepted the blindfold from the other wher Candidate as they reached the field, and heard the tune the man whistled as he secured it around his eyes. He helped Vivano in spinning him, then heard the tune again. Nodding, he followed the sound, walking with a sweeping motion that would find any tripping hazards before he struck them and moving his hands in a screening pattern a foot in front of his head... luckily, turns in the Mining Crafthold had taught him the proper way to move to avoid injury when your glow went out during your time in the tunnels.

Taking the chattering of the other Candidates as a sign that he had reached his destination, he removed his blindfold and slapped Vivano on the shoulder, grinning and saying, "Good call on that tune, made it pretty simple for me. Well, that and six turns in the Mining Crafthold," he added with a laugh. Moving over, he ignored the wher, since he'd seen a good number during previous lessons and knew the basics about them, and instead asked, "How big do whers grow? Like, is there any chance I'll Impress one that can actually carry me, or will I be wearing out boot leather my entire handler career no matter what color I get?"