Lesson 13 - Tropicals

[reqqy]

Lesson 13:
Classroom: Obstacle Course Design
Training Field: Twelve-Man Teams Making Jumps to and from Selenitas; Firestone Training with Practice Stone;[/i] Advanced Formations with all Weyrlings

Laurie tugged at her riding straps, glancing back at all the Tropical Weyrlings who had made it thus far. She was proud of them. So very proud. Not one lost to Between, and, though nerves made her want to giggle, she was sure that no more would be lost now that they meant to jump Between as a class. Soon, the cold would press in, the skip of a heart that doubted, for just a moment, that they’d ever escape the nothingness. Yes. Even Laurie still had that doubt, though it was a fleeting one. She cast a reassuring smile over her shoulder, waiting for the weyrlings to arrange themselves. Helmets went on, jackets fastened, goggles lowered. Some tested straps; some already had.

Mounting her Reysalth, the blonde woman cast her eyes ahead of her. It was time. You have jumped in formation before. This is just bigger. It’s more of the same, so don’t be nervous, lovelies. You all will do just fine. Make sure your riders are paying attention; LaurieMine is about to give the signal. The greenrider waited a few moments longer before pumping her fist into the air, Reysalth springing from the earth almost simultaneously. They rose fast, but not as fast as the weyrlings would eventually rise when they came to man the Selenitas wings in a few short months. An image, held in the greenrider’s head and transmitted.

There, the line of the beach, the crags rising up along the edge that stretched to the east and sloping down in soft dunes. A stand of trees directly inland, an island out to sea, just on the edge of vision. And, directly below, firestone gathered in large piles. A moment they hovered. A moment more. Then, another signal, and Reysalth made the jump. Emerging above the pile of firestone on the beach, the greenpair led their weyrlings down to land close to the trees, Laurie dismounting and grinning happily.

“Not so hard, was it? Everyone is here?”

Jedirth, rider T'nmor
Sitieth, rider Sa'di - NPC
Russeth, rider Q'in - NPC
Elleoth, rider N'tian - NPC
Benath, rider A'viar -NPC
Fortith, rider L'ron
Gartoth, rider T'ra - NPC
Zorith, rider D'niel - NPC
Sendreth, rider Devai - NPC
Storith, rider Janisi
Linoth, rider Sikowy - NPC
Raiyth, rider Fiona[/font]

[kysseh]

Pull... twitch... pull, yank, yank... fidget, pull...

Mine, if you do that again, you will break something. Please fuss with your own gear. The straps are quite fine. Raiyth said indulgently to Hers, turning her jade head to watch the young woman fuss and fidget over the straps. FiHers was quite silly about things, though the green understood that Hers did not want to fall. Falling was very bad and ended in lots of ick and squishing, neither of which was approved for a fun time. I promise. None of it is loose. She squirmed a bit to make a point that the straps were, indeed, well-maintained and put on correctly. There was to be no falling. See?

I see. I'm just being a fuss. Fiona admitted to her dragon with a quiet sigh. She just felt the need to make sure over and over again, especially after hearing of the candidatemaster's inelegant fall from grace and good health. A shudder ran through her at the thought, and then she focused her attention on the weyrlingmaster, offering the woman as cheerful a smile as she could manage. Sure... sure she was ready! She lowered her goggles, adjusted her helmet, and did a triplecheck on all necessary pieces and parts before mounting up and strapping on. Was she being a paranoid little idiot? Of course! Was she going to fall, though? No... no, really, she didn't think that fate had that in store for her.

Raiyth warned her to prepare, and the greenweyrling braced herself until she saw... the signal. Then she nudged Raiyth mentally, and the green sprang into the air, pumping her wings hard to keep pace with the rest of the weyrlings. Fast, they went, though Raiyth could hardly protest. Her enthusiasm meant she got into the air a little too quickly at times, and reining in that exuberance could be a bit of a challenge. She was neatly keeping pace now, though, and was hovering with the rest. The greenpair was not the best in their class, certainly, but that didn't stop them from trying. Raiyth had to slip a little to the left to avoid crowding the poor dragon on her right. Wing collisions were bad, bad, bad.

Raiyth passed the image to Fiona who latched onto it and kept it focused in her mind, while some little voice in her head inquired as to the purpose of the firestone. Firestone? Why were they... oh, right. Time to focus now! She waited for the signal and then held the image clearly in her mind, telling Raiyth to take them. Take them, the green did, and Fiona held her breath for the eternity that the short trip lasted before daylight and reality returned. They had done it again! She grinned from ear to ear and nudged her mindmate down to follow Reysalth, clinging tightly as the proud dragon beneath her settled on the sand and commenced to do a little dancing step with her hindquarters. Raiyth's victory dance was as subtle as Fiona's grin was glaringly obvious, and Fiona giggled as she realized what her mindmate was up to. Silly creature! We made it again, though! she said cheerfully before dismounting and looking toward the weyrlingmaster for instructions. Her knees shook a little, but she ignored that in favor of the joyful fact that she and her beloved, silly Raiyth were still among the unbetweened. "We're here, we're here!" she called cheerfully, gesturing at her still slightly-wriggling mindmate behind her.

[Kisha-Ra]

Storith pranced like an impatient runner, a habit Janisi found particularly annoying when she was astride the green’s neck. A slap landed on Storith’s striped neck just forward of her rider and the green looked around, affronted. Stop that. She said firmly, like she was speaking to a child. Stop what?[/color] Storith asked innocently, prancing again and earning herself another swat. That. Storith huffed and grumbled but desisted and returned her attention to Reysalth.

Janisi considered some petty vengeance, like drumming her bootheels against Storith’s neck, however Storith proved she was paying attention for a change by warning Janisi that they were going soon. Janisi shifted a little and leaned forward. There it was. As soon as she was prompted Storith sprang into the air, almost rising vertically in her eagerness to be airborne. It took a little work to slip into place as most other dragons went forward and up as opposed to Storith’s near vertical ascent, if the green had her way she would be way above and far behind her classmates.

When Storith showed Janisi the image she frowned a little a concentrated, happy that it was such a clear and distinctive thing. She never wanted to have to jump with only a fuzzy image! The sencond signal was made and Janisi mentally prodded Storith. The freezing blackness she was now used to closed in and dragon and rider hung breifly in the endless frozen moment before bursting out into the image of the beach with the rest of the weyrlings.

Storith dropped and landed with the others, prancing once more once she was down. Janisi ignored it; let her silly, childish, wonderful dragon have one little prance without complaint. ‘Feeling very here, weyrlingmaster.’ She reported cheerfully, dropping down to the sand. Looked like firestone training was on the horizon.

[reqqy]

Lauranna was doing her own little victory dance on the beach as she noted that she still had her whole weyrling class. The blonde woman beamed just as brightly as if she'd been the one jumping as a class for the first time, and as unsure of herself as all the young people gathered around her. "Excellent! Excellent!" Scampering into the center of the group of weyrlings, she waved the riders down from their dragons and herded everyone toward the heaps of firestone bags. It was a pleasant enough day with a light breeze, and the crisp scent rising off the ocean was invigorating, at least for the Weyrlingmaster.

Reysalth spoke quietly to the other dragons. You are making us all very proud. Now, if you could just line up - not one behind the other, but next to each other, and give yourselves plenty of room. That's good. Mine will explain everything in a moment.

Indeed, Laurie was launching into her explanation right at that moment. "No, this is not another toss game. You've all mastered sorting, breaking, bagging and throwing firestone. Today, finally, we are going to take the next step. And, if you do well at this, I've even arranged for a few riders to come and help with your first rope drill - but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Today is the day of your first flaming. Now, first you'll need to go and get a bag marked for your color dragon...go on now! We haven't all day!"

The Weyrlingmaster scurried forward herself to shoulder one of the bags for Reysalth with deceptive ease. Her dragon moved forward. "Now, I'm going to show you first, so don't try just yet, or you might burn one of us. As much as you might want to, I'd be quite upset," she added with a wink. "Feed your dragon a chunk at a time. Start with three, and remember to think of their second stomach. Stand well to one side and move out of the way as soon as you're done feeding them the chunks!" Reysalth belched, then suddenly a solid, powerful flame burst from the green's throat, arcing parallel to the watching weyrlings.

Lauranna hustled Reysalth to a point no longer in front of the young dragons and their riders. "Okay, lovelies. Give it a whirl, and remember to stand clear! Some dragons may need more than three chunks to gain a controllable flame. Your dragon will know...so be sure to ask them before feeding them another chunk. We don't want any crispy critters!"