Candidate Lesson 3: Whers

[Zephyr]

“ Maybe you should have been in her group then, Sena.” He gave her a playful eyebrow waggle. “ Imagine if we were allowed to all be in the same group. We’d probably be done before M’kai could have finished the words.” He grinned widely, looking back up to track Sydney’s process as the girl finished the sighted part of the exercise and then finished the blindfolded part of it. He was dying to say something to her, but he was too far away.

He wasn’t prepared for Sena jerking him towards the wher. “ Whoa. Alright then.” He said with a grin, catchin up to the girl with ease and trotting over to the wher with his friend. “ Hm…” He said, looking over the animal. It certainly was handsome, even if it wasn’t as “pretty” as some of the dragons in the weyr. Boys had a different concept of attractiveness than girls did, and Kaius certainly had a better appreciation of the wher’s not so obvious qualities. Calling the wher ugly was almost like some man code violation or something…there were even some pretty damn ugly dragons.

Still…he wasn’t a wher candidate. As much as he appreciated the wher’s qualities…it wasn’t a dragon. Not that he thought dragons any better. Whers were equal to dragons, and in some cases, they were more valuable than dragons. Imagine it there were any that could actually fly. He didn’t say anything as the girls verbally appreciated the beast. He stayed silent, looking over the wher slowly, thinking things through in his head. Then Sena spoke and he glanced to her. And he found himself forced to speak, “ OH. Uh…Iunno.” His gaze shifted from the blonde back to Pidesk. “ They’re real cool, but I don’t know if I’d be able to stand only being able to be out at night.” He shrugged. Truthfully, he’d never even THOUGHT of standing at a wher hatching. The thought had never even crossed his mind, to be honest. Still…

" What about you guys?" He looked over at Sena and Syd.

---

Buram was unaware of Rosanna’s irritation at his methods. And even if he had been aware, the phrase ignorance is bliss wouldn’t even begin to touch the cheerful boy. He was just happy to be around everyone. It would take a lot on Rosanna’s part to annoy him. When they got to the entrance, and the girl glowered at him, Buram grinned widely. “ Oh come on. Don’t be so grumpy. Enjoy yourself a little!”

He put his blindfold on and allowed himself to be spun by the girl. He heard the snapping in his ear and grinned widely, listening to her whistle. Buram’s walk was somewhat clumsy, and he looked close to falling a couple of times, but the happy grin on his face never faded and he nearly skipped to her when they were done, spinning in a flamboyant manner when he realized he’d gone too far. Smiling at her, he ripped the blindfold off, smiling like always. “ That whistle was pretty cool. I think I’ve heard it before. Where’d you learn to do that?”

Head jerked to the side when he saw that the others were gathering around the wher. Beaming, he turned to Rosanna, reaching to grab her hand and pull her towards the group. “ Let’s go look! Maybe he’ll make you feel better?” The idea of personal space wasn’t a concept that Buram was really familiar with. If she didn’t want him to touch her, she’d pull her hand away. Either way, she’d try to get the girl to the wher.

Oh yes! He was definitely going to be there.

[Sebz]

(This is SO my bad. I forgot lessons were real -shot-)

Casandra had overslept, though surprisingly not intentially. This was a lesson that she had been looking forward to, but sleep had overcome her as soon as she had finished her chores and hadn't awoken until moments before. Shard it all. Casandra cursed under her breath as she quickly changed clothes and put on some appropriate shoes before setting off to find the rest of her classmates.

Surprisingly, they weren't all that to hard to find. The clamor they were making could be heard all around the weyrbowl, and it was only a matter of pinpointing it. When she finally did, the sight she found was amusing. It seemed that many of the other candidates were donned in blindfolds and being led around by partners. This would prove to be an interesting lesson indeed.

Edging closer to M'kai, Casandra lowered here head. "I'm sorry I overslept," she apologized, hoping he wouldn't be too mad. But even as she was trying her hardest to be sincere, she was able to see the shapes of other people that did not look like any candidates she knew. Quickly enough she figured it out, the others were the wherhandlers. She glanced back at M'kai, and asked, "What would you like me to do," fully aware that there would be some sort of reprimand in store for her.

[Ruby]

((Sorry guys, I totally fail. Wrapping up the lesson here because it's been so long, but feel free to keep RPing with each other if you want. Piden will make more appearances if needed))

Once the questions (question, but whatever) started coming, Piden stepped in to cut M'kai off. Pidesk was suffering his various examinations in amused silence, eyes rolling a slow green of pleasure. So many good choices for his babies! Piden couldn't help but smile with the warmth coming from his Wher, so Cainith's question got a decidedly more normal answer than he might have otherwise... there was definitely some sort of joke about size in there, but Piden left off for the moment. "Pidesk is smallish for a domestic bronze, but they don't get THAT much bigger. I mean, if you can ride a big runner," he added, with a somewhat skeptical look at Cainith's seven feet, "You can probably ride a gold, a medium bronze, maybe a very large brown. All depends on the wher, I suppose, but you look a bit big for Pidesk, even. Then again, he's a skinny one," Piden added, shooting a look over his shoulder at the Bronze.

When no more questions were forthcoming, Piden shrugged over at the red-haired candidatemaster. M'kai was busy with some pretty blond candidate, so Piden took his wave to mean that the lesson was moving on. "Alright, well, that's the main part of the lesson today," Piden said, crossing his arms behind his back. "If any of you want to stay, I can take you into the jungle, show you signs of wild Whers and felines - things to avoid at night, mostly. The rest of you can go, but take a good look at Pidesk before you do. He's a smallish bronze, and he's not really a fighter. Sure, he can take a small feline with my help, but he's not something you want to run in to in the dark, is he? I didn't think so. So, no wandering in the forest after dark unless you've got a Handler with you, blah blah blah." Skipping his eyes over some of the more attractive, eligible-looking candidates (was it just Piden, or were a lot of them kind of... jailbait?) he added, "Of course, I'm happy to escort anyone if you need it. Just have some draconic call Pidesk or my salamandyrs, and I'm... at your service." With a final subtly sexy smirk - Piden trademark, of course - he glanced back at M'kai, waiting for the Candidatemaster to finish things up.

M'kai, meanwhile, sighed vaguely when Casandra appeared at his side. "What were you doing sleeping in the evening, anyway?" he asked, then shook his head. He hated having to enforce rules on kids that didn't know how to get a friend to wake them up. "Sorry, not appropriate teacher talk or whatever. It's fine, just don't be late next time, and tell the Headwoman you've got double chores tomorrow night. And," Oh, this was a bad idea and M'kai knew it, "My office, tonight, after the lesson. You'll stay for the optional part, then I'll run over what you missed afterwards." Once the blonde was dealt with, M'kai waved Piden on to the next part of the lesson, then nodded when the Handler finished up. "Good. Those of you that are staying, hang out here, those that are going can head directly back to the barracks with me, since it's after curfew now. Fun, I know. C'mon, let's get going."