Tornado Weyrling Wing Drills

[Rei]

Both? He had both weyrling wings to run now. Strangely the fact didn’t bother him as much as it did Kaaoloth. The brown was positive his was going to get burned out fast. Weyrling lessons for both classes and wing drills for both too? He could handle it. Kaaoloth made a mental note to ask Corinth to assign a temporary replacement. There had to be someone willing.

The older rider looked up from his perch on the brown. “Alright Kaaoloth I’m ready call them in.”
Aberath, Behruth, Checkoth, Kloth, Imprith, Qualuth, Glenth, Wymeth, Oquith, Uminth. Please report to the training field we will be conducting wing drills. Make sure yours are well prepared for flight.


Tornado Weyrling Wing
Wingleader- I'fael of brown Morendoth (Sel’n of brown Kaaoloth temporary replacement)
Wingsecond- Ki'ner of bronze Aberath

M'ta of brown Behruth
R'wign of brown Checkoth
F'neth of blue Kloth
Raila of blue Imprith
K'iel of blue Qualuth
V'neti of blue Glenth (APC)
Vashti of green Wymeth
Tr'esn of green Oquith
Kalina of green Uminth

[Requiem]

Not that one. M'ta's eyes narrowed significantly, producing what looked rather suspiciously like a glare. "Behruth, we don't have time for this." The brown danced back obstinately, even though he knew that His must be really irritated if he was calling him by his full name. It's not the right one, the young brown insisted. If we don't have the right shiny, we will fall right out of the sky! And go splat. You don't want us to go splat, do you? he added cunningly, his mindtone turning silky smooth.

"If we 'go splat,' as you put it, the reason won't be because we don't have the right stick." Shiny, Behruth emphasized, earning him a growl of frustration from His. It's the really pretty one. Remember? By the water? That one. And get the small one, too. The small one and the - "No more! I'll get your really pretty one just so I don't have to hear you whine all the way there -" And because you can't fly. You don't have wings. "- but that's it. We're already going to be late."

Smugly, the small brown folded his wings over his back. Fine. Only the pretty one, then. He couldn't hide the triumph behind the words and M'ta shot him a truly nasty look before scrambling back into the piles of shinies that Behruth simply refused to allow him to get rid of. Several tries later, he finally located the right stick and proceeded to strap it to his thigh, where Ruth insisted on admiring it until M'ta exploded in a rare burst of anger at his dragon. Behruth simply regarded him with amusement and submitted to the riding straps.

They arrived surprisingly early after all the fuss, something that only amused Behruth still more as M'ta surveyed the training fields in open confusion. The short weyrling strode directly for Sel'n, Behruth following him to where the weyrlingmaster now stood. The young brown nudged the man and crooned happily in greeting while M'ta took one last look around. What, were they all sleeping or something?

[glamourie]

"You can't come with."
Chirp.
"You can't. This is weyrling wing drills. What's a flit gonna do there?"
Chirrup.
"Ellie, you can't. You're so small.."
Flute.
"Oh, fine. But stay out of sight, okay? I don't want to get in trouble because of you!"

Pleasantly trilling, Elegance - also called Ellie by her R'wignPet - took to wing and flew neatly over to Checkoth. The brown was already dressed in riding gear and from the frantic way his tails were waving back and forth, he was very much looking forward to their first wing drills. His eyes whirled rapid shades of blues and greens, and he crooned to the gold as she dove down into one of the firestone bags to hide herself from view. Her glittering gold hide vanished into the darkness, and Checkoth turned around to stretch himself out as best he could. He was getting to be very large, at least he thought -- Peppeth said he was, anyway, and he'd gotten stuck in the door so he must have been big. Wouldn't everyone be delighted to see just how big? The thump-thump of his tails hitting the ground grew to be more rhythmatic. Behruth hadn't seen the shiny yet, either. So much to do!

R'wign crouched down and tied his boots. Behind him, Roxie gave a low whistle of agitation that made the weyrling brownrider sigh. "I can't bring you all. Five is way too many. One is too many to come, but she's a baby, I don't want her far. Particularly not after finding that tunnelsnake in my bag." The mere mention of the tunnelsnake had Roxie trilling in delight and she rattled her pinions before gliding to one of the shelves. Said tunnelsnake was up there on the shelf, mostly consumed, with the bones staying as a trophy. Upon spying the dead creature, R'wign had promptly panicked - surely it intended to eat his little gold! - and Roxie took over: she'd snatched the body and made off with it like a meal. And she made it last, which meant she wasn't sharing. "You can protect this weyr, make sure no evil salamandyrs sneak in or anything. You know. Like Showoff."

The mere mention of salamandyrs made Stumpy (who was sitting on the table) growl. Hazard leaned over and pecked him neatly to keep him in line, and then the brown chirped approvingly. R'wign nodded to Hazard, then glanced toward his furs... where Collision was plowed out flat on his back, legs in the air twitching occasionally and making low whistling noises. Apparently an interesting dream he was having.

"You three keep Collision out of trouble. We'll be back soon, and then Roxie, you can go back to trying to convince Ellie that you're the queen and she's just a green. Okay?"

Roxie cocked her head to the side, then chirped approvingly. Though she'd initially been outraged at yet another firelizard to share her R'wign with, she quickly realized the virtues of having a gold at her beck and call. First, golds could chase off any bronzes who misbehaved. Second, they were shiny and pretty. Third, this one seemed so... so nice. (Never mind that by no means was Roxie in charge of Ellie; the little queen was quite capable of making her own decisions. The green, however, felt certain she was the boss.) She could grow to appreciate a useful gold. Her wings fluttered and she gave a low, musical hum that sounded like encouragement before leaning down to yank a rib bone off of the tunnelsnake. The bone broke with an audible crunch.

Are we going now? Checkoth asked, sounding only half as excited as he felt. His tails thumped the ground again. He loved to fly! I want to show the shiny to Behruth!

Climbing onto Checkoth's back, R'wign nodded. "Yes, we're going, but --" He barely had time to secure his straps before Checkoth, in a moment of over-exuberance, threw himself off the weyrledge, "--CHECKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTH!" It was almost a guaranteed fact that R'wign's screech echoed throughout the canyon as the brown weyrling wobbled awkwardly in the air. His wings were big, but his tails put him off balance and it took some doing to level out and move upward. R'wign held onto the side of Checkoth's neck like a lifeline, his eyes turning roughly the size of small sauceplates. His skin paled to a ghostly shade and he looked very much like he wanted to faint. The surprise of taking off was only part of it; the rest was attributed to the bumpy, awkward way that the brown managed to fly. He'd get better, surely, but while they made their way out of the canyon, R'wign honestly felt like he was going to fall. And anything he may have said was cut off quite abruptly.

As they flew over the training field, Checkoth circled. Unfortunately, he did not stay balanced and level in the air, so his circling led to him being turned at an angle and R'wign's grip tightening until his knuckles turned white. Really, Checkoth did not understand why R'wignHis worried so much. He was a dragon. He could fly. See, see, see? The thought excited him and he swept down rapidly to land. However, Checkoth was not very good at judging his own speed. He was getting better when he thought about it, but in his excitement, all he could register was that he needed to land and introduce them. Thus it was that he flew entirely too fast toward the ground and, rather than backwinging and landing smoothly as most dragons did, he absolutely crashed into the dirt, kicking it up around his claws in the process. His wings flared to keep himself upright, and Ellie squirmed and squawked audibly from her bag, while R'wign inhaled. The brownpair skidded across the ground, coming to a stop right next to Behruth as if they intended it that way all along.

Checkoth crooned. R'wign exhaled in relief.

"R-R-R'wign and Checkoth, here, sir..."

[Avu]

Find your pet Moth and hurry, Tr'esnmine, we'll be late and they'll be /waiting/ for us!

The green was practically bouncing impatiently, her body wriggling, eyes whirling rapid shades of anxiety. And I want to see Qualuth and Wymeth, and I /especially/ don't want to make them wait...where is she? There was no reply from Tr'esn, as the greenweyrling was busy riffling through his trunk, trying to find his riding gear -- and his kitten. Moth had been investigating and faceplanted directly into said trunk, disappearing from view. Finally, a scruffy, disoriented-looking kitten popped up, eyeing Tr'esn with something that looked distinctly like reproach. "Sorry, Moth. I'm in a hurry," Tr'esn explained quickly, seizing the kitten and gently tugging off a stray sock to plop her down on the bed and then grab his riding gear, pulling it on and then, helmet still in hand, grabbed Oquith's straps. "Stand still," he demanded breathlessly of the green, who immediately froze obediently.

Hastily rigging up the straps, Tr'esn could feel the shared impatience from Oquith, and pressed himself to go still faster. He'd just finished checking over the straps and scrambled up when a brown with two tails -- Checkoth, Oquith stated -- was visible flying off of another weyrledge, his Rider's shriek echoing. Tr'esn froze in surprise, and Oquith's gaze followed her clutchbrother, evidently bewildered, in his flight pattern before she realized Hers was strapped in. Ready? she demanded eagerly, and Tr'esn blinked once before nodding, wrapping his fingers around the straps as Oquith took a quick bounce before she took off, wings flapping hard to gain altitude. Forelegs extended precariously as she struggled into the air, Oquith huffed her frustration as she tried to turn herself around -- her weyrledge facing the opposite direction from the training field -- and failed.

Finally, she closed one wing in despair, and Tr'esn grabbed the straps tightly as they dipped sickeningly in the sky. But it had the desired effect, and Oquith unfurled her wing as the wind spun them around with a reassuring croon. I wouldn't let you fall. Tr'esn merely nodded. He was getting better with heights -- thanks to time spent in the Drumheights, as well as his frequent flights with Oquith -- but still, seeing the ground at that angle was nauseating. And, of course. The part he hated most: Landing. Tr'esn resisted the urge to close his eyes as Oquith angled herself downwards, gaining speed as she approached the training grounds and then backwinged once to land neatly, just behind Behruth and Checkoth, bouncing twice before she regained balance and furled her wings.

Tr'esnmine and Oquith reporting for Wing Drills!

Hers was the tone of utter solemnity, as Oquith dropped her head to let Tr'esnHers dismount, the greenweyrling leaning nervously against the dragon's shoulder as she flopped down cheerfully on the ground. Behruth and Checkoth were not ignored; she crooned to both -- but she didn't know either of the brownweyrlings well and didn't know what to say to them. What if they thought she was foolish for looking forward so to Wing Drills? Are we starting soon? she asked Kaaoloth hopefully, her tail twitching in excitement as she drew it around her haunches and then glanced up at the sky, forelegs nearly lifting entirely off of the ground in her enthusiasm. Where were Qualuth and Wymeth?!

((It's horrible, but...it's up. x.o;))

[Rei]

Sel’n and Kaaoloth watched as the Tidal wing arrived. Well some of the Tidal wing anyway the first to arrive were M’ta and his brown Behruth. The rider wasn’t sure who they were but Kaaoloth was fond of the young ones and knew the brown as Behruth, making his rider by default M’ta. The older brown rider backed up a few paces as a friendly dragon snout nudged him. “Hello there Behruth. Nice to meet you.” Sel’n said pleasantly enough, until his attention was stolen by the next arrival.

These two made a memorable entrance for sure. The crash landing had Kaaoloth’s eyes whirling in nervous yellows and a anxious croon greeted the pair. The large brown lowered his nose to the two tailed young dragon and gave him a gentle nudge. You must not come in so fast young one. You may hurt yourself and yours that way. You are ok?

Sel’n was a bit less concerned than his dragon but he strode over to the pair anyway. “Hello R’wign. I am assuming your landings are not always so traumatic?” He asked a hint of worry in his tone. They might have to work a bit on those.

Kaaoloth raised his head as Oquith dropped to land and he crooned in welcome to her. Nice landing Oquith and yes we will be starting soon. He craned his neck to search the sky for other pairs and when none were forthcoming he snorted.

Sel’n raised an eyebrow but did not comment to the brown instead he turned to the small group. “If any of you hold any sway over your classmates you may want to kick them here from now on. A wing cannot function properly with only 3 or 4 dragons.” The brown rider pulled out some sheets of parchment and passed them around. “This is the wing pattern we will be practicing today. Please commit it to memory. Today we will practice staying in formation. I was going to have you practice rotating in and out as well but we do not have enough dragons today to perform that. I will give you a few moments to look over the formation and then I will take any questions you may have.”

[Requiem]

Hi hi, Kaaolath's pink fleshy! Behruth chirped back, releasing a thunderous croon. M'ta rolled his eyes, but said nothing. Indeed, even if he'd wanted to, he would have been interrupted by the screech and the insane landing of the other brownpair so close to Behruth that the smaller brown had to brace himself. He nuzzled Checkoth happily. That looked like such fun, CheckBrother! "Don't even..." We must all fly really, really fast like that. M'taMine, I bet you can scream even louder than Checkoth's! Of course you can. Staggering under one of Behruth's enthusiastic nudges, M'ta sent R'wign a glare. "Now look what you've done."

Oquith may have been a little shy toward the browns, but Behruth suffered from no such malady. Upon spotting her he trundled in his awkward way to her side and plopped down right next to her. Very pretty, Oquith. You looked like a flutterbye! I always go bump. He nudged her gently and turned his eyes back to the Kaaolath expectantly.

Uminth! M'ta visibly jerked at Behruth's mental shout as Sel'n began to speak. He cast a glance toward the skies, but there was no one in sight. What are you shouting about, Ruth? The brown's enthusiasm remained, but he backed off a little such that the volume wasn't making M'ta's head ring. We should make sure Uminth comes. Hers really, really likes you, I think. Where are they, anyway? M'ta grimaced. She's just another of us, Ruth. And how am I supposed to know? You're the one who can talk to Uminth without having to be within a couple feet of her. You tell me.

Once the parchment came around, M'ta just stared at it for a long, hard moment. His reading and writing abilities - mostly self-taught - were getting better, but maps and drawings still had him baffled. How you could represent anything three-dimensional on a piece of paper was beyond him. He turned the paper sideways, and it did him no good, so he righted it and tried to see if cocking his head to one side worked any better. No such luck. "Okay. Sir? Yeah, this is...what, supposed to be a side view or something? Or are we really stacking our dragons one atop the other?"

His eyes flicked up to the Weyrlingmaster. There was questioning there, but also a trace of scorn. "And either my math is really off today, or it's going to be pretty difficult to maintain an eight-man formation with four dragons. Am I missing something?" He didn't really have a problem with authority...much...but if they expected him to swallow every idiotic idea, they had another thing coming.

[Avu]

The greeting she received had Oquith's eyes whirling rapidly in pride as she gave a little hop-skip, her wings flaring enthusiastically as she crooned. Did Hers hear that? Kaaoloth thought she'd landed well! (She'd entirely missed Checkoth's less-than-graceful landing, or she would probably have been more concerned about her clutchsibling.) I did well, Tr'esnlove? the green asked hopefully, cocking her head to appraise Hers. Very well, Tr'esn assured her, leaning against her side as Oquith's tail slithered almost possessively around him. Her tail twitched in surprise as Behruth walked right up to her and sat down directly on her other side, the green peeking shyly at him. She wasn't used to her other clutchsiblings: Wymeth and Qualuth were her constant companions and she'd never really felt the need to socialize more than that.

His compliment, however, made her croon softly, as did the gentle nudge he gave her, the green touching his neck with her muzzle lightly, pleased. Thank you, Behruth! Mine and I have practiced a /lot/, she explained emphatically, and then, realizing it sounded slightly like bragging -- or perhaps that was merely her? -- Oquith added, solemnly, You're probably better at turning than I am, even if you do go bump when you land. She nodded. And Mine says that browns have more endurance -- I think I'd like that, she finished a bit wistfully.

At that instant, though, Sel'n started to speak and the green hurriedly brought her head around to watch the brownrider as he explained. Wait -- WYMETH? QUALUTH? the green called, instinctively finding the minds of her two most familiar clutchsiblings as she whirled on her haunches, forelegs clearing Tr'esn's head easily as her eyes searched the sky. Clutchsiblingsmine...we have Wing Drills! Wymethlove? Qualuth?... Tr'esn jumped up, grabbing one of Oquith's forelegs and giving it a gentle tug. "C'mon, Qui. They'n come later. You'll decapitate me...! Shh, listen," he added firmly, as the green showed signs of wanting to hunt out Wymeth and Qualuth and demand that they come to Wing Drills. She wanted to fly with them, she did.

M'ta got the parchment first, and Tr'esn cocked his head nervously as the brownweyrling turned it sideways -- what? His question made Tr'esn edge closer to peer at the parchment. He couldn't read -- he'd been trying to learn, but it was frustrating! -- but he did recognize his and Oquith's names. Left point: An important -- and rather dangerous -- place in the formation, the greenweyrling thought: After all, there would be no dragons to catch Thread that fell at Oquith's back, and as thus he had to be responsible for making sure his own dragon's back was covered as well as the dragon -- one of the two browns -- ahead of him was fine. Stacked? I'm at the bottom? Oquith asked, clearly alarmed as she glanced from M'ta to Sel'n. I don't want to be. Are we? I...um, I don't think so.

The second question asked by M'ta had Tr'esn quirking his eyebrows curiously, too. Three Weyrlings and their Weyrlingmaster: It didn't make for a good wing and if he was indeed riding point, then -- well, it would just be hard. There was far too much sky to cover, wasn't there?! "Um, yeah...Oquith called for Wymeth and Qualuth, but -- I don't know if they're coming," he stated softly, as Oquith rumbled anxiously at the thought. "And...I -- can't read. Could you -- explain it for me, please?" he added, a flush of embarrassment coloring his cheeks as he dropped his gaze numbly to the parchment. He knew numbers, but that was about it. And there were no numbers in Wing Drills.

[glamourie]

"Uhhh." Eloquence, thy name was R'wign that particular afternoon. He squinted at the 'wingleader' (was that the proper term?) in regards to his question before glancing down at Checkoth. Truth was, their landings were usually pretty bad. Checkoth had trouble controlling his positioning in the sky because of him having two tails. His balance was off. While he could learn (probably easily, R'wign reckoned), it would take a lot more practice. Practice that R'wign did not have enough time for, in light of all the events at the Weyr of late. Even to him it sounded like an excuse, but the problem was, it was a valid one. He spent a disgusting amount of time in the infirmary. What free time was left was dedicated to basic dragon care and he felt like - like he was neglecting Checkoth. It made him want to crawl into a hole just to think about it. Rather than address the issue to someone else (if he wanted help, he'd ask M'ta, thanks), he shook his head... and lied through his teeth. "We're usually fine... Checkoth's just.. just excited, that's all. For drills."

The brown shifted slightly beneath R'wign and glanced shyly at Kaaolath. He was so big! Stranger too. Fidgeting his two-tails, the brown glanced from the wingleader pair to Oquith. She was more familiar, and he crooned pleasantly to her, before answering the other brown. R'wignmine and I are both fine. He wanted to add that they landed that way a lot, but R'wignHis had told a fib, and he was conflicted. He settled for squirming slightly, which made little Ellie uncomfortable in her bag. A gold head peaked out, hopefully unnoticed, to look at all the big dragons. Startled, she ducked back into her bag, unnoticed by R'wign or Checkoth. We thank you for asking.

M'ta's words made R'wign flash the other brownrider a wide grin. "Yes. Fly really fast. Like Checkoth. Do it, Behruth. I will bring you plenty of shinies if you do," he replied as he took the paper from the Weyrlingmaster with a curt nod. The word 'shiny' made Ellie peek out again, but R'wign didn't notice. He was busy looking over the paper curiously.

The question M'ta posed was a valid one, he supposed, though R'wign easily understood the reference. Had the other brown weyrlingrider asked, he'd have explained it; however, since the question was voiced, he waited for an answer with his head cocked to the side curiously. Then Tr'esn spoke. R'wign frowned, then indicated his paper with one finger, answering before the senior brownrider could. "It's a diagram. Like a pattern. What this means is basically when we're in flight, Weyrlingmaster Sel'n flies at the head of the head of the wing." He lifted one hand to indicate the first mark on the paper. "Then Raila and F'neth fly on either side of him, Raila to the west, F'neth to the east, giving some distance. Ki'ner --" He narrowed his eyes; the weyrlingrider hadn't yet forgotten that bronze beast's antics at the hatching, "-- flies in a formation behind Weyrlingmaster Sel'n, like this. Bear in mind there'd be some distance for flight and turns I'm assuming, else it's pointless. Behind Ki'ner to the west would be you, M'ta, while I'd be to the east. Sort of at a diagonal angle. Then at an angle behind you would be Tr'esn and Vashti would be behind me -- and the blue and greenriders would rotate out accordingly."

Pausing in his lecture (and his own amazement that he was the only one taught to read, for it was standard practice for those of healercraft), he turned back to the weyrlingmaster before repeating what he deemed an obvious question, "M'ta's right. We can't practice an eight-man rotation with only four of us. Without Aberath, we have no way of knowing where to fly exactly, and without the rest of the wing, no way of judging our distance in relation to others. Formation practice won't work without stand-ins."