Guide to Lake Dolphins

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Lake Dolphin Hall

The Lake Dolphin

Picture by Tashe

Lake Dolphins are considerably different than ocean dolphins. Their body shape is different, with more of a curved appearance and more elongated nose as shown in the picture above. Their color is also quite different. It is famous as being light pink, but are not always so. The younger dolphins are darker gray, and the color lightens pinker with age. They also can be brown or a creamy shade of white, though the pink is the most common. They are a quite a bit longer than humans, about the length of an ocean dolphin, but also a bit bulkier. Because of this, they aren’t that fast in the water, but maintain a graceful appearance. The teeth that span the long mouth are sharp, but they are very gentle when feeding by humans. Their diet consists mainly of fish, but if they can get to lake muscles, then they will eat them.

Their average lifespan is 35 turns, but it is not unheard of to have a 40 turn old lake dolphin. Females start breeding at about 5 or 6 turns, but males can’t breed until they’re about 7 or 8 turns old. The calves stay with their mother for about three turns, and suckle for two of them. Females can produce calves about every 4 or 5 turns, but the intervals between calves get longer as the females get older.

They are rather shy creatures, but incredibly intelligent. They learn quickly, and learn to respond to the Dolphin’s Bell at a young age. They are very trusting, however, which may lead them into sticky situations at times. As with ocean dolphins, they are also capable of simplified human speech. Because lake dolphins are loners, they do not have pods. They roam Blossom Lake alone, but that doesn’t mean they would attack anyone they do not know. They ‘talk’ with each other in the wild, but then they go about their own ways. The only time that they will travel with someone else is the mother when she has a calf. It takes a long time for these shy creatures to bond with humans, but when it does, it is a very strong bond second only to the mind bonds of draconic creatures. Often, if a dolphin dies, dolphineers will refuse to take on another. However, the ranking dolphineers are under obligation to bond again. More than one dolphin can be taken on at once, but it is difficult business, and can only be done at the permission of the Masterdolphineer.

A lake dolphin’s primary responsibility is to protect humans. They will even die to save the lives of not just their dolphineer, but anyone who truly needs help. They instinctively use echo-location to find anything abnormal in lakes, ranging from humans and boats to hazards to lake life. They also are capable of checking for pregnancies, and are a popular method to those who suspect. Riders may even fly straight from Selenitas just to confirm the fact that they are or are not carrying a child. What is peculiar, however, is that they can also detect some things outside of the water. They seem to know where a flitter clutch can be found, as well as the number of living eggs there are.

More peculiarities are found in the lake dolphins. Some, but not all, are capable of talking with dragons in mindspeech. However, they rarely do this because they feel as though they shouldn’t barge into the minds of something that is not their species. They are somewhat uncomfortable with mindspeech, for they do not share mind bonds with anyone, so this feeling must be awkward for them like a non-HAD might be with dragons apart from their own.

Along the coast of the lake are different stations, where journeymen live, sometimes with apprentices, to keep an eye on the lake to make for quick travel to various places from the nearest station. Each station is equipped with a Bell. A journeyman can choose to either live at a station, or just stay there for brief amounts of time. There, a journeyman can learn about different kinds of scenery and hazards of different places of a lake. This will heighten experience for both a dolphineer and their dolphin.

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Lake Dolphin History

It is unknown when lake dolphins evolved or how they got to Blossom Lake. It is widely assumed that either the colonists secretly brought them along as an experiment that they abandoned in the onslaught of Thread, or that they found their way into the rivers that led to Blossom Lake and evolved through the turns. Either way, calves learned the legends of humans through their mothers, and passed that knowledge along through the generations. But because the South was abandoned for so long, and with their shy nature, they remained hidden from humans for much longer than ocean dolphins.

They were discovered in year 2558 by some people exploring the Southern continent on foot. As the Dolphin Hall was expanding rapidly, the Pernese eagerly took up the opportunity to train the dolphins. As the lake dolphins knew what humans were, they agreed that dolphineers should return.

This Hall was obviously more liberal than any of the other Halls as the turns went by, but they kept their silence, unlike the Dolphin Hall. That outspoken bunch was against any of the fighting that was occurring, and started becoming radical. They protested the happenings in the North to a point where they flat-out refused to help seacrafters. Anger soon was directed at them, for their dwindling hold was considered nothing but holdless rogues. This tainted the name of dolphineers, for hate crimes soon began happening against them. The pinnacle of this hatred occurred in 2682, when Bitran mercenaries (their benefactor remains unknown even today) went and massacred every dolphineer and dolphin they could find at Dolphin Hall, even the youngest of apprentices. This scared the Lake Dolphin Hall into silence, and they stopped protesting even as Dolphin Hall was declared nonexistent and Lake Dolphin Hall was demoted to a minor craft.

This did not stop the hate crimes against the lake dolphineers, who were still seen as lazy folk who didn’t do anything to help anyone. In the eyes of everyone, especially the North, lake dolphineers were hardly above even a drudge. Fortunately, these people were secluded in Blossom Hold, who still sang their praise. It is perhaps because of Blossom Hold that they retained any dignity throughout the years.

In the present time, hate crimes toward lake dolphineers are not as common, but are still occurring every so often. The most recent, drastic hate crime towards them was the attempted murder of some dolphins who had responded to the ringing of a false bell late one night in 2800. They were tricked over to a secluded area, but fortunately, others were awake at that time, and realized this bell wasn’t the one on their dock. A band of dolphineers hurried over, and when they realized what was happening, they fought against the Northerners. Unfortunately, two dolphins died, as well as six dolphineers. One of those dolphineers was the brother to the present-day Masterdolphineer. Since then, and since Selenitas Weyr is regaining strength, Mastedolphineer Melista is determined to restore the lake dolphineers’ lost pride.

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Dolphineering

Junior Apprentice (ages 10-12): Learning the fundamentals of dolphineering, learning basic care of dolphins, daily swim with dolphins to become familiar with them, can be ‘adopted’ by journeymen to gain firsthand experience on dolphineering.

Senior Apprentice (ages 12-15 at the youngest): More advanced classes, basic dolphin healing, teamwork with dolphin, proper use of bell, training of young dolphin partner, daily swim with dolphins to look for dolphin to work with, older apprentices can help journeymen and work for them, those with dolphins can go on local, unsupervised hunts for flitter clutches to teach them about working with a dolphin.

Journeyman I (ages 15+): Learning to work with dolphin partner, can learn to specialize if they wish, doing tasks unsupervised, can observe and assist older journeymen and Masters with important duties, assigned stations, work for pay.

Journeyman II (ages 20+): Can teach dolphineering to apprentices, trusted with most responsibilities, can work for mastery, can ‘adopt’ junior apprentices to teach about dolphineering.

Master(ages 35+): Highest rank, trusted with all responsibilities, can take on apprentices if they have special aptitude, allowed to call for dragons when needed. Looks only to the Masterdolphineer (as opposed to a Master Dolphineer).

Bells

Bells are used to call the dolphin to the dolphineer. There are different sounds of bells, and those on the same note are rung in different patterns to attract individual dolphins. Each one has a call, and must be rung correctly to call the right dolphin. An emergency call is non-stop ringing or whistling.

Whistle-bell – Used by senior apprentices with dolphins, they are whistles of varying sizes and used more for practice than anything else, since an apprentice’s dolphin should never be too far from the Hall.

Hand-bell – Used by journeymen and masters to call individual dolphins, they are rung with the hands and can be hung on a belt. They come in many different notes, and patterns can be very complex, depending on how many dolphineers there are at the present time. If a person has more than one dolphin, the dolphins will learn to respond to the same ring as opposed to two different rings. If a person rings an emergency call, any dolphins in the area will come to assist.

The Bell – A large bell on the dock, it is a universal ring that will call all dolphins. Three rings means it is not an emergency, but a meeting that all paired dolphins must attend. Non-stop ringing, however, is an emergency, and will bring all the dolphins, no matter what they do. There are Bells at each station, but dolphins do not keep track of that. Their number one rule is to go wherever an emergency call is ringing.