Lesson 6: Juniors

[Tashe]

This was the second time in a long history of classes that this particular lesson had to be taken over, and with it brought saddening reminders of the past. Looking up from his desk to his currently present members of the class, the Wingleader sighed before waving his hand for absolute silence. "Hello all. I know this is one of the few days you have been waiting for, we will be taking your first steps in the Flying process... aka taking short leaps. But first things first! Pop Essay." Pushing himself up from his leather chair, slightly disheveled Weyrlingmaster gracefully slid a file onto the fist desk that was occupied by a student.

"If you please, hand these out to everyone. I want a three to five paragraph paper on the exact use of Firestones and what the different type." Watching quietly as his student began passing out the papers, F'rah continued after a moment. "When you are done you know the drill. Into the assignment turn in basket, then find your Leathers in the back and return to your desk. When you have done and if there are still students writing their paper, take out your First aid vocabulary list and study from it."

Drumming his fingers on the side of his desk, F'rah stared down the students as they wait for him to sit down, to call the essay to begin. Turning, the Weyrlingmaster skillfully dodged the wastepaper basket that wasn't supposed to be there before sitting heavily down in his chair. Leaning forward slightly the man interlaced his fingers. "You may begin Blooming Flora, no cheating. It will mean double chores and a private talk with me if you do..." Closing his eyes to the sounds of quills scratching on parchments, F'rah happily reached out to his dragon, letting himself be cradled by his simple adoration. /Mine, I know this lesson brings back memories that you wish not would come back, but these hatchlings need to learn with a happy inspirational teacher. They will like it a lot more than the dour attitude that is beginning to broil inside./[/i] Yes I know... /It wasn't your fault./ Yes. I know... But I wish I could have stopped it.

Gold
Savitri of Hepaticath

Bronze
K'dran of Risith (I)
R'aro of Idith

Brown
Gl'myr of Silvytreth(APC)
M'ritz of Origoth (II)

Blue
Roshya of Sheyath (I)
L'nos of Bivroth (II)
As'lin of Stillith
M'kier of Tepidoth (II)
C'ralt of Vomath (I)

Green
J'on of Rinagth
Aminadra of Sairmonath (II)
Liassa of Tiaeth (I)
Lyelle of Pipsissoth (I)
O'dan of Emerith (I)
Celeyn of Foglith (I) [/size]

[kysseh]

Savitri had not been talking before F'rah raised his hand for silence, but she came alert anyway, turning to look over at the weyrlingmaster. It was not a disliking of socialization but the fact that she was simply too excited about the prospect of flight exercises to engage in idle chitchat. Her mind was focused on what they would be doing in lessons, and she would rather just prepare for that. Leaping exercises? She smiled faintly. Hepaticath's quiet enthusiasm filtered to her over their bond, and the young woman took a moment to share that quiet joy with the young gold. Both females were excited to get into the air, and Cath insisted that they would fly beautifully together.

Savitri hardly doubted that.

The announcement of a surprise essay had her arching an eyebrow, but she decided it could not possibly be too badly and took the file from him, withdrawing a paper for herself and then standing to pass out the papers to the rest of the class as F'rah continued to give instructions, putting the file with its remaining papers back on her desk before returning to her seat. He finished the instructions, and she almost--almost--sighed. Granted, the first aid was quite a bit redundant in her case, but she understood why it was a necessary part of instruction. She had to set a good example, she knew, so she made an effort to not show her frustration on that count. She had wanted to be treated like any other weyrling, and she could scarcely complain about these little details.

When he sat and called for the essay to begin, she looked downward and let her mind begin to work. Firestone... firestone. There were different types? The goldweyrling frowned and waited to write until she got her thoughts in order. She did not remember there being different types, and after a full day of bagging firestone as chore, she was fairly sure there was only one type in use. Aliscia had told her something about some other highly unstable kind that had stopped being used quite a time ago... but was that what F'rah was looking for? Shardit, but she hated not knowing. Unless he was deliberately trying to throw those who did not study, perhaps she was forgetting one. Or... maybe he just wanted them to mention the other one.

She opted to write just what she knew. Firestone... a rock that, when chewed by dragons, enabled them to breathe fire. The rocks had phosphine, which, once chewed and partially digested in the dragon's second stomach, produced a phosphorus gas that ignited in the air. Aliscia had taught her that, though she did not write the detail of the source of her teachings. That was not necessary information. She did, however, continue to add that firestone was used by the dragons for the specific purpose of making flame that could be used to burn Thread in the sky. The golds did not use firestone, which she noted, as it could cause sterility as it did in the greens. She debated for a moment whether to add the trivial detail and then tacked a short paragraph in on the subject of the former, less stable firestone that had required only chewing and no digestion. It had been explosive and caused more burns in the dragons than in the Thread, which was probably why they used the stone they did now. Dusty, nasty stuff still, though. She was rather glad that she did not have to use that with Cath.

Ignoring Cath's pleas to hurry up the rest of the weyrling class, Savitri dutifully got up and turned her paper in, satisfied with the result. It was likely not flawless, but she had been as thorough as she could be without being wordy. She hated being verbose; it wasted ink and time... and energy. She retrieved her leathers--almost compulsively well-maintained, between her own paranoia and Cath's insistence--and returned to her desk with some reluctance. The first aid list came out, and she looked it over, silently ticking off all the terms she knew. That came out to be... all of them. She really disliked that part of lessons, but it was unavoidable. Hurry, Mine. Make them hurry. I really want to fly, and the writing thing is easy. They should be done now. Cath was saying reproachfully, privately, to Hers, but Savitri just mentally prodded the gold right back. Oh, stop it. We'll be out soon enough, so just sit your large rump down and knock it off. Surprisingly, Hepaticath fell silent, and Savitri felt relieved. Now that that irritation was aside...

[Ruby]

As'lin was finally, finally on time. He hadn't been early enough to snag a seat next to any of his few friends in the class, but it wasn't an issue. Despite his often social nature, As'lin was also used to long periods of solitude, and to be completely honest going on six months in one place was quite long for him. It wasn't exactly restlessness that plagued him- with Stillith here, As'lin couldn't think of anywhere else he'd rather be, to tell the truth. Instead it was habit. The intensly social nature of Weyrs and Holds were fine for a time, but facing the rest of his life like this? It was a bit much to adjust to, especially when he felt he should be moving on. It would be better when Stillith could fly, that was for sure. At least then he could escape for a day or two every once in a while and re-charge.

So As'lin was looking forward to this lesson, since it meant that he'd start learning to fly. Stillith was excited too- the Blue had grown quite a bit over the past few weeks, catching up with the more average of his classmates, and despite being a little worried that he would fail and embarass himself somehow, he was feeling quite hopeful. Much moreso than usual, As'lin noticed, although he didn't say anything to Stil.

The pop essay, though, was a very unpleasant surprise. Yes, he knew something about Firestone, but As'lin was not a good writer. He could form all his letters just fine, and even compose words fairly quickly, but... it seemed that even if he could say what he meant out loud, putting it on paper took out all the sense. Starting, too, was a particularly painful process. In fact, he was quite a bit better at figuring numbers than at writing essays, which was saying something since he still counted adds on his fingers. Stillith, annoyed at the delay, just put his head in As'lin's lap, keeping his peace until his Rider was done.

It took several minutes for As'lin to get started, but once he did, he picked up speed quite quickly. Chew the firestone, turn it into gas, gas turns into fire in the air, which kills thread like a Flamethrower did. He had a bit more trouble with the types, and settled for writing about the different sizes and grades of Stone, and what types of flame they would produce as far as he knew. He finally paused for breath when Savitri got up to turn in her paper, and realized he'd written a solid page with no paragraphs at all. It was just one long block of sentences (quite a few of them run-on, although As'lin had never heard that term before in his life). Oh well, he couldn't change it now without copying it all over, and he didn't have enough paper for that. Hopefully F'rah would understand... if not, As'lin would take the punishment. He could handle that.

With an awkward little shrug at F'rah, he handed the sheet in and headed to the back of the room, swinging by his desk to take Stil with him. He smiled at Savitri, opening his mouth to ask how she thought the essay had gone before clapping a hand over it and looking chagrined. Most of the class was still working, after all. Maybe they could talk later, outside, but now was not the time. As'lin focused back on his leathers, wishing the rest of the class would be done soon. Stil took the time to say a brief, warm Hello to Hepaticath, but left it at that for the moment.

[Kisha-Ra]

J’on glared at his desk, okay he supposed he had gotten more responsible somewhere along the line. Maybe it was having to look after a growing dragon but back when he was Jarathon (a few months back) he never would have bothered about being a few minutes late to a lesson, or made sure his roommate got there on time too even at the risk of double chores. Thankfully there would be none of that from this lesson; O’dan had practically run to the classroom, for that matter J’on had hurried a little himself.

Anyway… J’on grabbed at his meandering thoughts as they passed him by, he supposed the real point of this pre-essay-thought-wander was that no matter how responsible he got J’on was never going to like essays. Particularly when they came between him and flying with Rinagth, or at least learning to fly. Hurry up, we’ll never fly anywhere if you don’t do your writing thing.[/color] Rinagth broke impatiently into J’on’s thoughts. I’ll be the best flier ever. Better than Hepaticath, better than the grown golds even. But not if you don’t write.[/color]

Listening to his prideful little green chatter J’on picked up his pen and chewed the end. Firestone…firestone… He scrawled about the different types of firestone the class had learned about, about how to pick out good pieces and why they were good, and about how much each colour dragon would carry to sustain flame for a whole fall, and, because he wanted to be through, mentioned that golds couldn’t use firestone. The letters coiled and splattered untidily as his hand fought to keep pace with his mind.

Finally the essay was over, J’on took the page in ink-stained fingers and dropped it eagerly into the basket before hurrying to collect his things. He realised other people were still writing with a moue of disappointment and hurried back to Rinagth’s side to study from his list of first aid terms.


O’dan stared at the ceiling, as if some helpful person might have written an essay there for him to copy neatly onto the page; perfect in every way. They hadn’t. How inconsiderate. Thinking about the rock that Pern needed to fight thread O’dan was amazed to find how ittle he really knew about it. That was what you got for being absent and late, well that, extra chores, and your friend mad at you.

What did he know about firestone? He knew what to do with it, which pieces were large enough to make a reasonable flame, and how to sort it into grades. He managed to spin this out for two paragraphs and a run on sentence before he had to think of something else. Didn’t firestone mines used to explode once? That was important he was sure. Why? Oh yes because that wasn’t the same as the firestone dragons chewed now, that firestone could still make flame but the minerals in it were unstable. It was dangerous, and not nearly as convenient to store O’dan would imagine. Another short paragraph went in about that.

O’dan would have racked his brain for more crumbs of knowledge but other people were already handing in their essays and he didn’t want to keep them waiting. His essay was good enough, it was as long as F’rah wanted anyway. O’dan handed it in with a sigh of relief and went to collect his leathers. at least their condition was good, wherever else he slacked off O’dan’s gar was as important to his as Emerith’s hide, particularly since properly maintained equipment might save both their hides one day. He scrambled back to his desk to study his copied first aid vocabulary.

[Tashe]

By the time As'lin had finished his paper, the Weyrlingmaster had moved himself over to the window, slid himself out onto the edge, gotten on Styth, gone to the Training field and had left a note on the Chalkslate reading: Once everyone is done, follow Savitri to the Practice fields where I will be waiting for you with your course set up. We will proceed from there. Bring your leathers and try sight sharing all the way there. He had been able to do so quietly and efficiently, since the Weyrlings had been absorbed in trying to figure out the trick in his wording. /That was rather smart of you./ Thank you. I try my best. /Making them think about what you said, giving you more time to set up the course./ Once again. Thank you. But you really don't have to try and distract my thoughts... trying to set up this course so that our smallest dragon can complete it is challenging enough.

Panting slightly as he took off from his starting point once more, F'rah paced his run, counting how many of his own foot steps it took to reach the first of his jumps. Upon reaching the jump itself, the Weyrlingmaster slowed himself only after he passed it, skidding to a halt and almost loosing his balance. Bending over so he could grasp his knees, F'rah took a few moments to catch his breath before, leaning back onto his heels with a sigh. He had paced the jump more or less, the exact distance it needed to be away from the starting line... he had ran the distance five times, just to make sure he was precise in his imprecise calculations. Dragon jumps worked like Runner jumps, if they weren't almost exactly perfect, it could lead to injuries or problems. Giving his head a shake to free his hair of sweat, the Weyrlingmaster plastered it back when he ran a hand through it. "Man. I really need to start working out again." /Mine, you are in really good shape for a human. That distance is a quarter mile... so you just ran a... a... a mile and a fourth in a little less than Nine Minutes./ And look how out of breath I am. I used to be able to run that far with only a small pant and much more energy to spare. /Bah. You're older now./ Thanks Styth... I'm only twenty-seven. /Er... Right./

Shaking his head in amusement, the Brownrider slowly made his way over to the Dragon, stretching his arms on the way. Styth was a relatively young Brown, although he and F'rah new more about Dragon and Rider habits than most people would ever hope to, thus allowing them the position of Weyrlingmaster at such a young age. He had been fascinated by Dragons since he was old enough to know what they were, and he had had his parents full support, then again why wouldn't he? He was the youngest child after all. Placing his fists upon his waist after he had rooted his waterskin from inside one of his saddlebags, the Weyrlingmaster yawned, waiting for his students to arrive.

[kysseh]

Savitri hid a smile as As'lin walked down the aisle toward her. He was finally finished, as it looked like a few others were finally wrapping up. Her eyebrow climbed as he opened his mouth, looking like he was about to talk. She gave her head a sharp shake to remind him to not, but he seemed to catch himself and looked faintly guilty. Her eyes brightened, and she smiled to reassure him that all was well. He was in no trouble. She was just impatiently waiting for their classmates to finish, and her gaze flicked back toward the terms list. Boring, boring.... she knew that, and that. The outdoors and the prospect of flight were calling to her, and when she was eager to get out of the classroom. The firestone was important, and she did need to know about it, even though Hepaticath could not use it. Still, she wished to be outside.

Well, everyone present seemed to be finished, so she got to her feet and went to the chalkslate that she had caught sight of a few moments before. Her eyes skimmed over the writing, and she nodded. Very well. She had to get the weyrlings out there, and she turned to look over the seated weyrlings. "Everyone finished? Good. We're due to meet F'rah out at the practice fields and practice sight sharing on the way there. I guess he means that... we're supposed to be sharing images via the dragons? I'll have Hepaticath start on the way there, and we can see how that works." With that, she turned and moved toward the door, gesturing for the others to follow.

She met Hepaticath outside, folding her first aid list to talk it in her pocket and draping her leathers over her arm. She was all ready to get on with leaping exercises, and the gold's fidgeting implied that she was similarly eager. Hello, Stillith. the gold said politely, happily, to her little blue friend as the goldpair began moving off toward the practice grounds. Savitri kept an eye out to see that the others were following, hoping they were not lagging. Certainly, none of them should have been slacking. Wasn't everyone eager to work on getting airborne? Hepaticath was almost quivering in her excitement, and the gold was normally the picture of perfect composure.

As they walked along, Savitri pondered for a moment and then glanced ahead of her. She saw a tall, peculiar-looking tree that had branches on only one side. It was odd and very noticeable. Was this what F'rah meant by sight-sharing... sharing pictures of things? It would be good practice for betweening, certainly. She tilted her head to one side and then fixed a firm picture of the tree in her mind. It was still a fair ways ahead, so it would be a few moments before they reached it. She nudged Hepaticath with her mind and sent her the very clear image. You have it, Cath? Send it to the others, make sure they have it firm in their heads, and have them give it to their riders as well.

Hepaticath gave a quiet croon of understanding, eyes whirling contentedly. Oh, yes. She had the image, and she carefully broadcasted it to the other dragons along with a very politely worded series of instructions. Mine says to firmly set this picture in your mind. Then you must give it to Yours to practice sharing the images. Then you can send another picture of something to all of us. Hopefully, it is as interesting as the one-sided tree. Her tone was mildly amused, for she found the tree to be very curious. Branches on only one side? What was wrong with the silly tree?! She chose to not elaborate on that point, though, and simply hopped along until the weyrlingmaster and the course came into view. She almost--almost--did a little draconic dance in her excitement. SavitriHers looked similarly excited but said nothing else except to glance back at her fellow weyrlings and smile broadly. They should have been excited too.

[flupine]

Celeyn eyes repeatedly darted upwards, searching the room for Faranth knew what. She just couldn't keep her eyes down and focused on the paper. Not surprising considering the topic at hand to write about. Celeyn had hardly been ecstatic when she found out their was a pop essay and she was no more excited now that she was half way through the essay. Really this was all so.. boring. Dragons ate firestones and produced flame, why was this being made more complicated than it actually was? The only ones that couldn't keep up were those silly Holdbred brats. But she wouldn't complain, hadn't she lived in a Hold for several years? Realizing that people were now standing up and turning papers in, Celeyn looked down at her own paper and realized that she only had a half page worth of... nothing really. Sighing painfully, she forced herself to stare down at the paper and push herself through the mess of trying to finish and make it worth not throwing in the trash. Firestones... that was all well and good, she had that down though types did make her stumble until she just decided on writing about the different sizes and for which dragon each size should be for. That was as close to 'type of firestone' as she could manage. Celeyn moved on to the next half of the question and though she placed them back wards in order to be answered, she hoped it wouldn't warrant a bad mark and definitely not punishment. So she hoped.

Giving up, Celeyn threw her pen on the desk and stood up to turn the paper in. So what if she was one of the last few still trying to scribble some sort of answer onto the paper? It was a hlafway decent paper, it looked to be in essay format and quite frankly it bored her to tears and she could give a shard less about it. It was the flying that she was most interested in. Well, leaping today but soon she would be able to fly. Eagerly, Celeyn deposited her essay into the bin and reading the instuctions on the board turned rather disgruntled towards Savitri. Well, whatever if it meant she could fly then she would do this. Disgusted with even herself now, Celeyn all but marched towards the back of the room, deciding to wait for everyone to finish there rather than join their little huddle around Savitri... disgusting. Picking up her leathers and tossing her blond hair in some sort of imagined defiance Celeyn waited by the door until everyone had followed Savitri out of the room before joining in the back of the group.

A pretty good plan, Celeyn decided, itkept her away from most of the silly non Selenitas brats but it did have one major flaw. When they stopped on the grounds where the leaping would take place, it put her squarely in the back where the Weyrlingmaster was sure not to see her which meant that she would probably be last on the list of people who would get to leap. Which was not improving her mood in the least bit. And the worst part of it was that Celeyn had no idea as to why she was so angry or sad or morose or upset, rebellious defiant. She just was and it seemed that she woke up feeling angry. Celeyn hadn't always felt this way and the feeling seemed to have started from when she Impressed. Or maybe before she Impressed, she simply kept them suppressed. Either way it hurt to always feel like this, she hadn't felt like this when she lived at the Hold. At the Hold she had been a happy industrious worker, she was never late and hardly disobedient. And she had been a fairly good leader now here she was in the back of the class, barely able to put on a happy smile. She hurt all the time, it was starting to affect her dear happy Foglith whose own feelings were turning much shadier. And yet Celeyn felt helpless to stop it.

Angrier that her thoughts had turned to analyzing herself, Celeyn focused on the game at hand. Supposively they were suppose to work together which people might think a definitely foreign word to Celeyn but surprisinly it was not. She could work with others, she would show them. Receiving the image from Foglith she barely cracked a smile in relief that it had actually worked. She had the image! Sneaking a quick look to see if anyone else had noticed the lapse in her sullen attitude, but who could ignore the feeling of elation at being able to do something right. Looking around, Celeyn took in the scenery but didn't manage to see anything spectacular. And then it hit her. Her grand plan. Stepping back a little, Celeyn held the image that they created. They being the Weyrlings, all crowded together, some faces lit up in elation and excitement at having gotten the image, others in slight confusion, most with eagerness written on their forheads for the leaping lesson to come. that was the image she wanted to send. Themselves. Holding it firmly in her mind, she sent it to Foglith, tentatively at first and stronger as she she gained confidence. Send it to the others lovely.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
psshhhttt... K'dran's here. Just not as exciting as Celeyn.... >>

[Kisha-Ra]

Roshya concentrated on her essay, forming each sentence to contain the maximum information while still actually making sense. If she’d been thinking a little harder Roshya would have realised that that was just making her life harder since F’rah had asked for a set number of paragraphs. She ignored the impatient presence of Sheyath in the back of her mind and the noise of other members of the class handing in their essays until the final full stop was placed. Then she almost ran to the front of the class to drop her (hopefully) perfect essay into the basket and collect her stuff.

Roshya didn’t get much further than giving her first aid terms a look over. Apparently she was one of the last to finish the essay as Savitri asked if everyone was done with their essays and, after deciding that Hepaticath would start the image sharing exercise, turned to lead everyone to the practice fields. Roshya eagerly bounced out of her chair and toward the door, feeling the kind of formless excitement that she had known as a child.

Sheyath was excited too, the small blue wriggled with impatience as they headed for their first flying lesson. Flying will be fun, we will fly together.[/color] Sheyath uttered one of his rare sentences. Oh Hepaticath says to show you this. We are to send something to everyone as well.[/color] Sheyath showed Roshya the image of the tree as clearly as he could.

Roshya glanced around at the scenery, searching for something interesting to send back. A bright flash of green darted by, a wild firelizard stooping on her invisible prey, it wasn’t as interesting as the one sided tree but Roshya fixed the image into her mind anyway, freezing the flitter in midair, and gave it to Sheyath. Pass it on. she instructed, Sheyath obliged willingly. A moment later Sheyath showed her an image of the class. Foglith showed me this.[/color] He announced seriously seemingly pleased to see the image. Roshya’s mouth curved up into a smile. Tell Foglith I think her rider has a talent for picking out images. Sheyath relayed the compliment and fell silent again.


It had taken R’aro some time to get started with his essay, he had trouble starting things sometimes, and the first part of his page was filled with crossings out. It was going okay, if a little ramblingly, now he’d gotten into it though. He chewed the end of his pen thoughtfully then made a face. Time to wind things up before everyone got impatient with his slowness. A fractured sentence later R’aro ascended to the front of the room to place his essay in the pile, hoping no one noticed what a mess it looked. It was pretty easy to find his leathers as there weren’t that many sets left to sort through.

On his return to his desk R’aro was given time for no more than to seat himself before the class left. R’aro joined his classmates eagerly, wanting to fly just as much as anyone else. As soon as R’aro was out the door Idith came bumbling over from the spot where he had ben basking in the sun. R’aro suppressed the thought that Idith would fare no better in the air than he did on land. The bronze was unfortunately clumsy, seeming to be able to trip on, knock over, or get tangled in almost anything but he was so enthusiastic about finally flying that R’aro didn’t want to spoil his dragon’s mood.

You’re finally here. I thought that writing was going to take so long we’d never learn to fly.[/color] Idith chattered merrily, off his bronze dignity for a moment. He dutifully stopped his talking to listen to Hepaticath and accept the image to show to R’aro, then he passed the instruction along too.

R’aro chewed his lower lip thoughtfully. Are you sure this is what F’rah meant by sight sharing? He asked, wondering what this could have to do with anything. Hepaticath seems sure, which means her bonded is sure, or good at hiding unsureness. Therefore this must be right.[/color] Idith used his own logic to reassure his rider. What are we going to send back? The tree was strange, we should find something like that.[/color]

R’aro looked around for something interesting while Idith showed him the images other weyrlings were sending. Finally he picked an unusual stone off the ground, not interesting or odd, but distinctive enough that he could easily fix it in his mind. He held the stone in his palm, concentrating on the pattern of white banding on the dull grey surface and sent the image to Idith.