Galactic Weyrlings -- Lesson 9

[Administrator]

ATTENDANCE

Goldrider
Paryal of Aezanth

Bronzeriders
W'liam of Rinth
T'ren of Kasraith

Brownriders
Z'hin of Jessereth
NPC V'nus of Vemorath

Blueriders
Uu'n of Adith
A'en of Ayisseth
E'nor of Clestioth

Greenriders
P'tol of Llath
N'vis of Reenith
Ciara of Toryth
Alene of Liamoth
Kalierre of Phremath
Adoptable Q'ell of Euciath

---

Shmee was... excited, to say the least. She hadn't gotten much experience with the weyrlings, so this would be a nice time to get to know them. These dragons were getting so big. Was it really the first clutch Aslath looked after? She smiled fondly at the memory. It very well could have been a lifetime ago. Bouncing Miguel in her arms a little, she smiled even more at his happy squealing. Yes, she would be taking him to the lesson. She didn't relish the thought of leaving him, even with Lauranna. But these weyrlings shouldn't mind. She had heard about Meri. Smiling in amusement, she carefully climbed to the top of the desk, sitting on it and looked down at the empty seats. S'rei had his own class to teach, so passing Miguel off to him wasn't an option. Adjusting Miguel on her lap, she set his legs in front of his little body, paying no attention of the twist of one of them. Miguel didn't seem to notice it, so Shmee wasn't concerned about it at the moment. She was thinking more about S'rei's plight at the moment.

Oh, S'rei. She found herself smirking. He was not happy with needing to teach the lesson for the junior weyrlings. She had to pull him out of bed, which in itself took a while because he was not a morning person, then get not just herself, but Miguel and S'rei ready for the day. Then she had to make it clear to S'rei that she would give him a prize later for doing this. It was odd that even now, at this dark hour, so many things had gone on. Giving the mental nod to Aslath, she scooted back a bit on the desk.

Everyone, wake up and do not be late. Bring your flying leathers. Come to your lesson,[/color] Aslath stated into the minds of all the senior weyrlings. This was more command than anything else, so Shmee hopefully wouldn't have many problems.

Watching the students mill in, Shmee beamed. "Good morning, dollies!" she announced, looking a bit too perky in the dark morning. "I'll be teaching your lesson today, which should be a, erm, fresher breath than Meri's lessons." She chucked a bit. "However, I will not tolerate any goofing off, or else you will get so many chores that you will not know the meaning of free time." Smiling sweetly, she took out her clipboard, extending it in front of Miguel and marking the attendance with difficulty, considering Miguel seemed to like the clipboard. He giggled, trying to pull the board closer. Keeping the board firmly away, Shmee jotted down the attendance quickly before looking up.

"So, today, we're going to be mostly outside. We'll drill a bit, then we'll have a leathers inspection, then do some more fun stuff. That sound good?" Shmee grinned. Prying the clipboard away from Miguel, she set it on the desk. However, the babe didn't enjoy his game being taken away. He started bawling as Shmee slid off her desk. Absent-mindedly bringing him to her shoulder, she rubbed his back while smiling at the weyrlings. "If we take a step outside..." she said in a sing-song voice over Miguel's cries.

Leading them out, she paused. There were some dragons who couldn't fly... She chewed her lip for a moment before turning to face the crowd. She would talk to Kalierre and N'vis once the dragons started flying. They would have to learn about all this stuff anyway, at least. "Set up your leathers on the dragons, please, so I can check them over as well as make sure they're made right," she instructed. She hoped she was teaching right, she thought sheepishly. Shmee wasn't exactly trained in this field.

Going through the dragons, she checked each of them, being double careful to make sure they were done right. She didn't want to be the cause of any accidents, like Sera had done when she was a weyrling, with the twin riders... Shard it. F...F'lam, right? And Fi...Fiora. She was pretty sure those names were right. Maybe she should even talk to the weyrlings about them. Without names, of course, but enough to make sure they wouldn't screw up this lesson.

"They all look pretty good... But if you feel anything wrong, come down immediately," she told them firmly. She paused. "Anyway, sit for a moment, and we'll discuss wing formations."

Though Miguel was still whimpering, her rhythmic rubbing was doing some good. Not to mention that he had found her necklace and was tugging at it. Amused, she ducked out of it as she sat down in the grass, not caring about how informal she was being. Meri probably never ran a lesson like this! Setting Miguel in the grass, she was relieved he didn't need support to do so. For once, she was glad his leg was twisted enough to prevent movement, so that he wouldn't crawl toward the river in the middle of her teaching.

"So, flight formations," she began cheerfully. "You probably understand the basics, but you also need to know just why they're that way. A full wing is made of about thirty-three dragons, and in a V-shape. In the front is the Wingleader, and in the V right in back of him are his wingseconds. These act as the leaders of the wing, so always follow their direction. After that, the wing falls through bronzes, browns, blues, and greens in the end. The V is to make sure that there is a lot of area covered while flying, and capable of flaming all of any particular area, while also being easy to maneuver and easy to make sure dragons don't go around flaming each other.

"But!" she raised a finger. "You need to be extremely careful, particularly in weyrlinghood. When I was a weyrling, we were practicing our formations when the directions didn't come through to us clearly enough. This resulted in a blue getting into the flightpath of a brown, and the blue ended up sharply pulling away from him, but instead hit the cliff wall. They didn't live." Looking at each of this small class in turn, she nodded grimly. "This is a warning to all of you to be careful, and listen to your Wingleader."

Standing up, she resumed cheerfulness. "Everyone up!" Cheerfully picking Miguel back up, she brought him back to her chest. "We're going to pretend we're in a wing, but we're practicing on the ground with your dragons. You'll actually be in the air for this in your next lesson, so pay attention! I'll assign you to your wings now..."

Looking at her arm (where she had written her notes) for reminder, she nodded. "Paryal, you come over with me. Our first Wingleader will be W'liam, and T'ren, you take left wingsecond for now. You'll switch off soon. Z'hin will take the other wingsecond position, and will switch off with V'nus, who will be a wingrider behind T'ren. The rest of T'ren's side will consist of A'en, P'tol, Ciara, and Kalierre, in that order. On Z'hin's side, there will be Uu'n, E'nor, N'vis, Alene, and Q'ell, in that order. Hop up guys!"

Grinning, Shmee ushered Paryal and Aezanth to her from her position at the side, watching as the weyrlings would hopefully follow her directions and stand in order, in the shape of the perfect V she was hoping for. N'vis and Kalierre would do this part, she decided. Just in case they were somehow able to fight thread one day.

[Requiem]

Flying leathers? Oh, bother. Jessereth glanced back at Z'hin, who was currently trying to struggle into his clothing one-handed. Don't worry. They made some for me awhile back. We can use those until you make some of your own. That's what they said. The young man looked up with a slight smile. "Well, that's a relief, anyway. Now all I have to concentrate on is not passing out or falling off you." You'll still have to get me into the harness. I can't really do that by myself. "Oh. Right." Some of the happiness had gone out of the brownweyrling's tone. He could hardly get his own trousers on. How was he supposed to prepare Jess?

After quite a bit of manuevering from both members of the brownpair, they finally managed to get Jessereth situated, only to be faced by another problem. Z'hin couldn't really mount the brown. By this point, Jessereth was very nearly as big as he'd be full-grown, and the man's command of his injured leg still had quite a ways to go. Luckily, the brown had taken to flying as a fish to water. The brown dropped off the weyrledge, rising to hover as close to it as he dared. Z'hin managed an awkward jog, the cane Muta had given him secured by a strap to his back, and launched himself with his good leg into the air. His right arm threaded through the harness as he settled between Jessereth's neckridges, his hold the only thing that kept him from toppling right off again. He winced slightly, but managed a wry smile. "That could have gone worse."

The brownpair landed outside the weyrling barracks. The weyrlings were just making their way back out when Z'hin hobbled into the classroom with the help of his cane, the man sighing. Why did he even bother? He caught Kalierre's look and immediately turned to keep the distance between them. Unfortunately, she caught up with him in a few strides. "You really shouldn't be here this early, Z'hin." He shrugged, his jaw setting. They'd already had an argument about this, and he wasn't inclined to suffer a repeat. At this point it would just be more effort to leave than to continue on with the lesson. Kalierre fell into step beside him. "At least promise you'll sit out if things start getting painful."

"Fair enough," he returned shortly. It was only as the voice drifted over the weyrlings that he realized it wasn't Meri here today. Z'hin stared at Shmee, having never really seen her up close. Man, she was young, wasn't she? He hadn't taken the time to get Jessereth out of his harness, so at least he didn't have to struggle with that again, though he was somewhat nervous when she inspected the leathers. Shmee passed on without comment, however.

While everyone else sat, Z'hin remained standing, leaning on the cane. If he'd felt conspicuous before, he felt doubly so now. The man had lost considerable weight in the three months he'd been in the infirmary, and was looking rather gaunt. Not to mention the mangled arm that dangled limply at his side. But he wasn't going to struggle to stand up again, so he just concentrated on listening to the Weyrwoman and absorbing everything as best he could. Flight formations. Okay. This wasn't unfamiliar. And he must admit he was grateful they'd be on the ground. The landing hadn't been very...gentle.

Phremath was one of the first dragons to line up, eagerly wriggling about. It caused Kalierre to chuckle. The woman was mounted and watching the other weyrlings almost immediately, exerting her influence to try and bring the green's impatience back down to a normal level. That was when she noticed Z'hin. Her lips set into a thin line as she watched the man pause uncertainly. Jessereth had lowered himself to the ground as far as he could, but the man still had to climb up, a nearly impossible feat with only two limbs at full strength. Well, maybe he'd realize it was too early if no one helped him. Kalierre could only hope so.

[missa]

On he rants about loving to fly, and can't wait to be in a wing. Can't understand it myself, sound awfully boring, doesn't it Willow. Yet on, and on he goes about it. Yet, when we finally have the chance, he goes right on, CONTINUES SLEEPING! Rinth's last words were bellowed in W'liam's mind, amusement radiating from the large Bronze as His decided to flail around for a bit in the furs, further upsetting Willow. Instead of being annoying, Rinth merely stretched his body, gret wings flaring slightly as the Bronze decided, indeed it was time to wake up.

W'liam distangled himself from the furs with difficulty, waking up to placitate Willow with a kiss to her wedgedhead. Changed, boots, leathers. A scowl for his dragon, yep, he was ready.
"You are one mean dragon." He mumbled with a yawn, ah it was too early to be awake, despite that after months of having been woken up at the time, you never really got used to it. Never.

Wait, they had to take the straps off? Once W'liam had gotten over the shock of having the Weyrwoman, and her child, ashis teachers, W'liam inwardly groaned, unstrapping Rinth and showing her his straps -rather proudly - before muttering to Rinth to get him to bend again. Oi, what was that, Wingleader?
Not forever silly, jsut for the excersise. Oh. Well that was fine, mounting up with a grace that told that they practiced often, W'liam urged Rinth to take the place Shmee had pointed at the bronze, crooning playfully at the woman as he greeted Aslath mentally. After doing as he was told of course.

~*~

E'nor couldn't say her was pleased about being up this early, but the idea of being with his dragon again sent shivers of excitement. Now, mounted, and learning about the wings, he could barely contain his excitement. Nor, could Clestioth. Weght shifting from side to side, the Blue looked determidly excited, his eyes whirling quickly and brightly, practically bouncng forward to take a pace behind Adith, a low croon coming from him.
Hello Adith, how are you? This is very, very exciting is it not? Of course he was excited, so much so that he half flared his wings in enjoyment.

Clestioth, don't! We'll get in trouble. E'nor's scolding was filled with laughter and affection as the blue reluctantly agreed, settling his wings by his side, shifting again. Obviously, the blue was enjoying himself, and wouldn't stand still until Shmee or Aslath told him too, or Rinth. Sharding Blue, though he loved him, there were times when E'nor could get frustrated.

(Gah crappeh ><_