Blizzard Wing Drills

[reqqy]

The man's gaze flicked to K'lir briefly, his expression neutral. Silly child. The greenrider thought he was doing any of this for Calistoth's sake? In truth, he just didn't want to lose the use of two of his wing to injury due to Calistoth's - difficult - tendencies. Thus far they hadn't caused too much in the way of trouble, but, with his luck, this would be the fortunate day that everything came unglued.

"Very well. G-" He paused, his gaze shifting briefly to Salenth. Rubbing at a temple, he nodded once, before turning his attention back to the wingriders. "Apparently we have a new addition: Nyskelu of Blue Musinth." He'd kill Ka'rys for throwing this at him last minute. "I'll work them into the formation later, but it shouldn't affect anyone presently here, so go ahead and get yourselves together. We'll reconvene in the air." Salenth took his cue and addressed the incoming blue. Welcome, Musinth. ReiMine hasn't had time to work you and Yours into Blizzard - Obviously. -but we'd still like your presence so you can see how we do things, and we'll speak after drills.

S'rei didn't move to mount right away. "K'lir. C'lryn. Kemma. Stay for a moment." Then, as an afterthought, "You too, T'rid." His arms settled across his chest, and his gaze was clearly unamused as he closed the distance between him and these four. "You two. I expect you and your dragons to work together, because you'll have to be relying on each other during Threadfall. I will not tolerate fighting under any circumstances - and that means bickering, as well." His gaze settled primarily on K'lir. "I've tried to accomodate you as best I can, so if you'd just return the courtesy by continuing to control your mindmate, I'd greatly appreciate it." He fixed T'rid with his unyielding grays. "Watch these two, wingsecond, and keep them from killing each other if it comes to it."

His tone grew cold when he turned to Kemma, dismissing K'lir and C'lryn with a flick of his hand. "I don't know what's going on with you and your green, but pull yourself together. There aren't enough veterans here for you to fall apart on me. If it's something you can't solve on your own, come see me privately later today. Otherwise, figure it out. You and Mellith have been around too long to be pulling this crap. You're dismissed."

The bronzerider's stern expression slackened the moment he and T'rid were alone, his arms falling to his sides. "I'm going to need your help looking out for potential problems like these, just as I'm going to need Corinth to communicate what's going on behind us, yes? Memorize the formation in its entirety when you get a spare moment." He handed over the parchment. Walking past the wingsecond, he paused to let a hand fall on the boy's shoulder. "It will get easier once you get started. You can ask me anything, no matter how stupid you might think the question. We'll talk more after today's drill." Small squeeze, and he began settling helmet and gloves into place as he walked, mounting Salenth as naturally as any rider with eighteen turns' experience might.

The bronze powered into the sky, his long body snaking up toward the hovering formation. He fell into position, waiting for stragglers, before his voice boomed in clear command. Up, stay in formation, but fan out to a 60 degree angle as we clear the higher ground. Mark my speed. Salenth began to rise steadily. Not long, today. Just some basic maneuvering, one or two short Between hops, and a few turns. The Wingleader was more concerned with getting people used to one another than ought else.

[Avu]

T’rid was quite ready to fly—it was a lot more fun than standing around—and was quite ready when S’rei started to speak again. Oh, good. He stretched one arm, glancing at Corinth. I am ready, the bronze answered quietly to his unasked query. T’rid nodded gratefully and turned his attention back to S’rei, but his eyes darkened at the mention of yet another new arrival. Oh, what joy. He narrowed his eyes to pick out the blue’s approach. Unfortunately, a certain bronze dragon’s wings blocked his view of most of the sky, as he was standing in Corinth’s shadow. Ah, well. He’d see the new Rider soon enough.

He had already turned to mount Corinth—the bronze offered a foreleg—when he heard his name called, along with three others. T’rid turned, rubbed Corinth once, and then returned to S’rei, where he stood silently, waiting to be addressed. There were many things that T’rid might risk for sneaking in a snarky comment. His rank was not one of them. Even so, he shifted slightly under S’rei’s glance. He didn’t look very peppy, now, did he? The slightest smirk crossed the Bronzerider’s face as the newest Riders were lectured. Ah, their wing had antagonists, did it? Well, that would make life much more interesting.

The smirk was gone, replaced by a solemn expression, the second S’rei turned back to him. His command was…well, interesting. And slightly unneeded. He wasn’t going to watch two dragons battle during Threadfall and not intervene. No, no. That was silly! Of course he might be amused if their Riders had a little battle, but—okay. No. This was serious. He nodded, pleased that his face had betrayed none of the amusement he felt. “Of course,” he agreed quietly, glancing at Corinth. You heard, Cor? He wasn’t going to make his throat sore yelling unless it was urgent—he’d just get Corinth to directly contact Calistoth or Minoath. Whichever was causing the most difficulty. Yes.

Again, the smirk returned as Kemma received a strict lecture about…well, from what T’rid could pick up, it seemed as if S’rei had been demanding better manners. He hid the amusement from his face, although he was snickering mentally. It could just be a bad day for Kemma and Mellith. Bad days were promised to everyone—but of course, when flying Wing Drills and whatnot, one had to be a lot more careful. T’rid suspected this thought had been neatly inserted by Corinth, but admitted the truth in it. Okay. From now forth, he would be serious. Well, at least during Wing Drills. Afterwards he could be as fun as ever, but Wing Drills were serious. Good.

He listened solemnly to S’rei when he was addressed, pleased that the Wingleader didn’t look ready to bite anyone’s head off anymore. Oh, these were the thoughts he was supposed to guard against. T’rid nodded after the Wingleader finished, folding the parchment into a square and slipping it into his back pocket. There—now it couldn’t fall out and hopefully nothing would happen to it between now and whenever he had a moment. I’ll remind you before you accidentally wash it like the last ‘important’ paper, Corinth assured him. He nodded again at S’rei’s words.

Of course he would think T’rid was nervous—but he wasn’t really. Corinth was quite confident—at least for Wing Drills, if not Threadfall itself. The bronze wasn’t the type to loose his temper, and besides, none of the dragons had yet proved to be a problem. Sure, Calistoth and Minoath were apparently known to fight and, yes, Mellith was not in a most graceful mood, but that was all right, too. Things like this could be accommodated. “All right, thanks,” T’rid mumbled, although his own nerves were grateful for the squeeze on his shoulder. Now that he admitted that it, he wasn’t quite as confident as Corinth was. The bronze had forgotten his own age, no doubt, but T’rid hadn’t. He half-wished he could, though. Perhaps if he thought he was old and experienced, he might be a better Wingsecond.

He followed S’rei silently to Corinth, and swung onto the bronze, tightening the Riding Straps carefully before pulling his helmet and gloves on. Ugh, he hated the helmet so badly—but apparently it was necessary. Corinth relayed Salenth’s instructions crisply to him, and then followed the older bronze into the air, wings cutting through the air as he turned away from Salenth’s path and picked out his position in the air, hovering, eyes picking out each of the other dragons’ forms carefully. Ready, Ridmine? It was impossible to miss the excitement in the bronze’s tones. Um, yes? Thankfully, Corinth decided now was not a good time to point out how unsure the new Wingsecond sounded, instead concentrating on Salenth to make sure he didn’t drop below or above the Wingleaders.

[Ember]

Thank you Salenth. We shall be there soon.

A blue dragon patiently waited for his rider to mount up, informing her that they were to meet their new wing. The rider grumbled about not really wanting to go but, no matter how much she complained, they had to go and present themselves. She climbed up onto her dragon's paw, the small blue easily lifting her onto his back gracefully. We are ready, shall we go? Musinth asked as his rider made sure she was securely on his back. She assured him that she was ready but he could still feel her reluctance to go. Heck, she fully admitted it. Leaping into the air Musinth glided for a short distance before disappearing between.

The pair reemerged at the place the wing was practicing. It appeared as though they were starting to get into formation so Musinth circled down to land slowly. We have arrived and shall wait on your signal, Musinth informed bronze Salenth politely. Nyskelu patted the deep blue's long neck affectionately. Let me know what Wingleader S'rei and Salenth say, my dear. There was no real need to ask Musinth to but she did anyways. He had Impressed to her, the least she could do in return was treat him nicely.

They would have arrived sooner had it not come up so quickly. While Nyskelu didn't normally take long to get ready but in a new weyr it was hard to find who she should leave her little toddler with and where. She'd found it eventually, not too long after Musinth told Salenth they'd arrive shortly. Nyskelu figured it didn't matter much that they were late. They didn't have a place in the formation yet anyways. She grinned when she felt Musinth's disapproval but he didn't 'speak to her about it. He never had been an overly outspoken dragon, even when she'd told him they were leaving Benden Weyr.

That had been a strange night indeed. She preferred not to think about it and generally succeeded in that except for the times she had nothing much to do. She turned her attention the skies, watching the wing. Musinth too had his head turned upwards. "I'd rather be up there than stuck down here until the wingleader comes to talk to us," she told her deep blue dragon. She felt him agreeing with her, making her smile slightly. So together they waited on the ground, wishing they could join the wing.