-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Neiravi In the Sky With a Diamond Date: October 14, 2008 Places: Igen Weyr's Weyrling Training Field and Skyspace Game: PernMUSH Copyright Info: The World of Pern is copyright(c) to Anne McCaffrey l967. The Dragonriders of Pern(r) is a registered copyright. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kassi's Note: Neiravi, Dali, and M'dras fly with their dragons, for the first time in the girls' case, as extra practice in M'dras's. OOCly, this was a make-up class in mounted flight. :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Log: Only a few Weyrlings trickle out of the Barracks for this lesson--others are redoing those straps yet again, or running laps, or any of the mandated tasks that are all that can keep many Weyrlings from a chance to fly. M'dras has already flown with his Ubevanth but they're here anyway. Dali's practically bouncing in place; her Salvadath is calmer, if you don't look at the twitching green tailtip. Kassima leans against Lysseth in their usual place in the field and returns salutes as they're given--the adult green, as all the Weyrling dragons should be, is already kitted out in her straps. Neiravi is finishing up the kitting-out of Sislyth, on her tiptoes and adjusting one last not-quite-perfect arrangement of strap and buckle. "Does it chafe?" she asks in an undertone. "Not 'it doesn't look right' or 'it needs more polish', but *does it chafe*? Those others can wait until later, but I don't want you getting scratched up." The young gold squints sidelong at the area in question and finally makes a noise of assent. Ravi grins, rubs her flank, and darts around to stand at semi-attention in front of Sislyth. Dali gets a wave, M'dras an eyeroll, and Kassima gets a (by now) well-practiced salute. "'Twill check 'em over--that goes for all of you!" Kassima adds, glancing to M'dras who failed his initial strap-inspection back in the groundriding days, but this time it seems he's confident since he doesn't twitch. "A'fore I let you up anyway. I don't want t'be the first Weyrlingmaster in an age t'be losing a 'Ling because she's a pancake on the ground. G'morning, all of you." The greenrider pushes away from her lifemate. She's mostly steady in walking these days, and so early on she doesn't appear tired as she has in some of the late-day lessons. "So they're comfortable," with a glance to Sislyth for confirmation as she reaches to tug on the young queen's straps, testing the stitching. "'Tisn't too tight anywhere? Too loose?" Sislyth makes a brief show of stretching and turning, showing off her lovely and comfortable straps that will fit perfectly for at least the next sevenday. Neiravi verifies it one last time with her dragon before nodding confirmation. "She says everything's fine, and I went over them this morning to be absolutely sure." From somewhere down the line comes M'dras's voice. "...too sharding *early* this morning!" Sislyth croons encouragement, ignoring the brownpair's snide comments. *Their* straps are not as attractive as hers. Kassima calls back without stopping her inspection, "You should know from too early, M'dras! How many extra laps has it been so far for you? --They're fine. This D-ring, 'tis stitched in a bit tight, but a lot of use would give it more give if'n 'twere *going* t'get a lot of use out of these. The length of the connecting straps is good. 'Twill do." Salvadath's straps, and Ubevanth's, are gone over in turn, and while the largest band of Dali's set has a visible nick in it they pass muster too. Kassima rejoins Lysseth. "Excellent work; keep it up, Weyrlings. Mount up and form a line. I want Lyss at the head even though Sislyth's bigger, so you can all watch us. We're almost ready t'fly!" She's already grabbing for Lysseth's straps to climb aboard her lifemate, and some of the excitement may be contagious, since Lyss's tail has taken up an anticipatory flicker too. You place one hand on Lysseth's neck and she warbles down at you fondly. You grin and scratch her eyeridges once before climbing up onto her lower neckridges, using the riding straps and Lysseth's thoughtfully offered foreleg. <*> Lysseth waits until Kassima's buckled in securely--overprotective? Her? A loving thump from Kassi's fist and she poises herself at the head of the forming line. <*> Neiravi mounts Sislyth. <*> Seated high atop Sislyth, Neiravi has been practicing, and in only a few quick steps is settling herself between Sislyth's neckridges. The queen tilts her head just enough to ensure her rider is secure before moving to line up behind Lysseth, her wings shifting and rustling in poorly-concealed excitement. Ravi's own excitement is visible. and audible in the pitch of her voice. "I'm strapped in, and we're good--Sislyth, please don't step on Salvadath's foot, thank you--good to go!" Kassima calls over her shoulder to all of them, "Aye, make sure of your airspace a'fore we go! *Always*. You don't want anyone too close--in front, to the side, behind, *above*, if'n your space isn't clear, you wait until 'tis a'fore taking off." Salvadath adjusts her place in the line, moving behind Ubevanth. When all the young dragons have enough room between them, Kassima raises her arm: "When I drop this, that's our signal t'launch." She looks over the younger dragons for a span of time only lasting heartbeats in truth. It probably feels longer. Satisfied, she swivels around to face forward--and the upheld hand falls to her side a moment before Lysseth springs skyward. You wing cautiously up into the Bowl. <*> Sislyth rises up from the training field. <*> Sislyth has plenty of airspace--she's big, she will have all the airspace she wants, thank you--and lunges skyward eagerly, bugling loud and clear. It's not nearly as graceful as Lysseth's springing. There's some awkward flapping, and Ravi can be glimpsed holding on to her straps for dear life. But once that's settled, once the warm air is boosting her up and letting her spread her wings, she's gilded glory on high, trilling encouragement to Salvadath and Ubevanth. Neiravi is laughing, peering around and down at the world. Best view *ever*. <*> There's plenty of warm air at Igen to do the job--this is one of the clear mornings, the springtime sky bright and just cool enough to keep wherhide clothing from being a baking torment. Lysseth stretches out her wings to their tips to flirt with a wavering thermal; she keeps to an easy pattern, almost a glide, for the Weyrlings' sake, curving as the Bowl wall curves beneath them to lead her mini-Wing in a circuit of that great crater. "This is how it should be!" Kassima yells over the breeze. "Dragons and riders, up here together!" Salvadath wobbles slightly in their line, but with Ubevanth and Sislyth both being examples to emulate the green is soon coasting as steady as they. <*> Sislyth trills again, up and down the scale, and Neiravi chimes in with a happy yell that might be a "woo-hoo!", if the normally calm girl could be imagined saying such a thing. The young gold experiments a bit with the thermals and the curve of the Bowl, angling her wings and causing a few stomach-twisting bobbles. But never for more than an instant, and never enough to break her out of line behind Lysseth. She lifts her head to the sun, letting light dazzle down onto her and soak into her shining hide. <*> Well, why not? It's not even the first time Kassi's flown with her Weyrlings, but the Weyrlingmaster sings out a whoop of delight too; the sort of gleeful call Weyrbrats make when playing riders-and-Thread through the Lower Caverns, to tell the truth. Apparently joy in flight isn't too undignified an example to set! Lysseth tilts her sails, thus, to slide into the next curve. The light gleams on all the oiled and healthy dragons, and below, probably unseen, a blue rider sunning at the Lake salutes them. Alas that it can't go on indefinitely and Lyss must eventually lead them back down, gradually dropping her altitude and backwinging, when near enough to ground, with more care than she'd show alone. You glide over to land in the training field. <*> Sislyth backwings to land neatly. You slide off of Lysseth's neck to land beside her easily. She rumbles, cocking her head down at you, and you rub her eyeridges gratefully. Sislyth has to be gently (okay, not that gently) reminded that when Lysseth circles down to land, so does she. If it's possible to glide and sulk at the same time, she's doing it. At least her landing is very good, with only a slight stumble-skip as she meets the ground and folds her light-flecked wings. Neiravi lingers on her back for a few minutes, not quite willing to go back to real life. It's also an excellent vantage point to watch Ubevanth almost plow nose-first into the Bowl, and Salvadath plummet like a rock before backwinging. Wacky fun! After that, she steps down from neck to foreleg to ground and waits, one hand on Sislyth and grinning fit to kill. Neiravi slides down Sislyth's side to the ground. Kassima waits for the young dragons to sort themselves out from their various mishaps. "Dragonets," she points out, unable to keep from grinning some as she does, "you can trust your riders a wee bit. You've been landing better than that without 'em on, and we can do some of the work of staying on ourselves. Cross m'heart. Welladay, a few bobbles and shaky moments but on the whole...." The rider trails off to let Lysseth deliver the verdict in a rumble of approval--unusually warm for the reserved green. Even the humans should hear the pride in it. "That's the start of flying with your lifemate, riders; did you like it?" Neiravi's grin speaks for her, along with M'dras yelling "Shells yeah!" and Dali's breathless "Oh yes, very much, except for that last part!" Sislyth looks quite pleased with herself as well, rustling her wings again to show that she could totally fly some more, if she were allowed. Ravi pokes her teasingly. "We'll practice. A lot. Just not right now. And Kassi's right, I was just fine. I can strap myself in just as well as I can deal with *your* straps; you don't need to worry." Raising her voice, she tosses out a question. "Today's a really nice day. Will there be practice flights specific to bad weather, or should we just study lots of weather patterns and practice?" Kassima assures all the young pairs, "Oh, you will. Every day you'll fly, for most of the rest of your lives. We can spare the time now t'start small--in the interest of keeping your wings healthy." Lysseth spreads her dark wings to extension. Her hide is as soft as theirs, but the muscles beneath harder yet even after their exercise. There are other subtle differences: their wings just aren't fully developed yet even if they'll carry weight now. "Good question, Neiravi; the answer's 'Both.' 'Twill bring you all out here t'fly in dark, rain, wind, you name it. Nay right away. Master flight in clear skies first, *then* we'll worry about weather tricks." Sislyth lets out a long huff of breath, which doesn't seem to faze Neiravi in the slightest. "'Practice' is not a dirty word, dear. Take your flying where you get it." She's getting a good look at Lysseth's spread wings, making note of the developed musculature. "And it would be a bad thing if your wings got tired right in the middle of a flight and we had to crash-land." Yes, think on that. M'dras is impatiently waiting his turn. "How long until we can go on solo flights by ourselves? I want to take Ubevanth to Bitra and show him to my folks." The 'without adults holding me back' is implied. "Keep in mind, without crashing you can still do yourselves damage. What happens if'n you wrench your wing badly? Or tear a ligament, that could happen. At the very least," Kassima tells the dragons and their partners alike, "you're grounded for sevendays while your classmates race ahead of you. At worst you're a lifelong cripple. I don't think you're wanting t'lose flight forever when you've tasted it now." Lysseth furls her wings and her rumble this time has a warning edge. "You won't be going t'Bitra any time soon. That's farther off than even extended flight will take you, that'd be a trip of days. We'll visit Bitra once you've learned *between*. You'll go *between* without supervision... oh... around the time you're ready to graduate." Kassima gives M'dras a look that just dares him to protest. "We will do extended flights--sooner for some of you than later--but within the sweep range and *with* supervision." Sislyth accidentally (it was an accident! Really!) thwaps Ubevanth with her tail, and the brown and rider both subside into disgruntled muttering. Neiravi gives her dragon a Look, and she subsides as well. "So don't fly too long, and don't try anything really complex, and don't do either of those things in weather or territory we're unfamiliar with?" she sums up. Kassima nods to the young goldpair. "Right, and right. At least for now all your flying will be with me or one of the Assistants, daily drills, and we'll ease you into more complicated things and longer spans in the air. Soon enough you'll be flying alone, and 'twill show you how t'play dragon tag and a few other games t'be teaching you finesse. Are there any more questions?" She looks to Dali, too, who shakes her head in quick negation. Neiravi is also shaking her head. "Time to eat lunch and think about what we've just learned," she says, straight-faced. At least the lunch part is true, Sislyth is looking towards the pens with a red gleam in her eye. "All right, dear, just a minute." She salutes again, "Thank you for the lesson, Kassima. And--" As the other weyrlings start to drift away, she says quickly "I'm very glad you're feeling better and that you're back. Firehead's a nasty thing." And now she'll follow Sislyth toward the pens, and try not to pity those poor doomed wherries. Kassima flashes one of her smiles to the trio. "You're welcome," she tells them all. "Class dismissed. Thankee for that, too, Neiravi; *I'm* certes glad. I'm sorry if'n I worried you." Given givens, after all--she waves after all the departing pairs, and heads to the Barracks herself to collar some more unlucky souls for goodness knows what task.